These photos were taken by Sir Graeme Dingle on Aoraki / Mount Cook, during a climb that brought together three generations of New Zealand mountaineers.
At 52, Sir Edmund Hillary believed he had one last climb in him, though it would later prove not to be his final ascent. The team was a remarkable mix: his pre-Everest guide Harry Ayres, Mt Cook guide Lynn Crawford, Jim Wilson, Ed’s close friend and filmmaker Mike Gill, and Sir Graeme Dingle. The contrast between generations was clear on the ice, it came easily to Graeme, while others relied more heavily on their ice axes, but on rock, it was interesting to see Harry and Graeme competing on the buttresses beside the Northwest Couloir, while the others climbed the snow gully.
Together, the team moved quickly and efficiently along the airy summit ridge, over the low peak, the middle peak, and onto the summit. Much to everyone’s delight, a helicopter dropped a bottle of wine on the summit, which the team shared before beginning their descent. The climb was filmed by Mike Gill and later featured in The Adventure World of Sir Edmund Hillary.
That season, Graeme went on to guide a number of peaks, including Aoraki/Mt Cook and Te Horokoau/Mt Tasman. While New Zealand had a proud history of mountain guiding, it was not yet connected to the international guiding network and Sir Graeme set out with Gavin Wills to change that. These experiences helped shape the values that would later define the Graeme Dingle Foundation: challenge, resilience, and using adventure to bring out the best in people.