How are you, Lincoln ?

Australian mountaineer Lincoln Hall arrived at the awards ceremony with his frostbitten fingers heavily bandaged. Picture: AAP IMAGE FOUR months after his near-death ordeal on Mt Everest, Lincoln Hall still has bandages on six of his fingers, and says he’s still exhausted.

Mr Hall, 50, was declared dead on May 25 this year after becoming disoriented from the effects of cerebral oedema on his way down from the summit of the world’s highest mountain.

He was discovered alive the next day, delirious and badly affected by frostbite.

The mountaineer was a guest of honour at yesterday’s Australian Geographic Society awards ceremony in Sydney, where he overcame a paralysed vocal cord, which was frozen on the mountain, to speak to an audience of distinguished Australian adventurers.

Six of Mr Hall’s fingers were bandaged, after having their tips shaved back late last week.

Two of his remaining fingers are blackened at the tips, but his thumbs appear unaffected.

Mr Hall said he expected the bandages to come off in a few weeks, but he was still exhausted from his experience.

“I really was left for dead on Everest, and I had to reach deep into myself, deeper than I thought I’d be able to go, to get down (from the mountain), so that’s left me feeling quite drained,” he said.

Despite, or perhaps because of his brush with death, Mr Hall said he was looking forward to completing more adventures with his family.

“Doing stuff with my family is ... particularly when realising what they went through when it did not look like I would come back ... I just want to do stuff with them,” he said.

But that won’t include a return trip to Everest.

“I don’t need to go back,” he said.

Mr Hall said he is writing a book, which he expects to be published some time next year.

Yesterday’s awards ceremony, at which 27-year-old Tim Cope was named Adventurer of The Year for his soon-to-be-completed 10,000km trek from Mongolia to Hungary, provided inspiration to youngsters around the country, Mr Hall said.

“I think it’s fantastic that the flame hasn’t been extinguished by computer games,” he said after the ceremony.

http://www.bordermail.com.au/news/bm/national/438652.html



THE mountaineer Lincoln Hall says a great adventure is like consuming a satisfying meal: "You don`t immediately want to eat again, but sooner or later you get hungry."

After his near-death experience on Mount Everest in May, Mr Hall is already looking forward to the adventure of learning how to rock-climb without finger tips.

He left hospital on Friday after having the tops of six frost-bitten digits amputated.

In May, Mr Hall was left for dead near the summit of Everest. Miraculously, he was found the next day delirious from altitude sickness but very much alive, and his survival made news around the world.
"I guess I`m not an entirely good example of adventure at the moment, but I think adventure is an extraordinarily important part of life," Mr Hall said at yesterday`s Australian Geographic Society awards ceremony in Sydney.

"Adventure is taking on the unknown where the outcomes aren`t guaranteed. That`s where you learn all sorts of different, unexpected things."

BASE jumpers Glenn Singleman and Heather Swan received a Spirit of Adventure Award for setting a world record when they leapt from just below the summit of India`s 6660-metre Mount Meru after a 22-day climb.

Mr Singleman said he loved a T.S. Elliot quote: "Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."

Roger Chao, named joint Young Adventurer of the Year for his mountain-climbing exploits in Tasmania, said the biggest critics of adventurers were the "dreamless".

The Adventurer of the Year Award went to Tim Cope, who is following in the footsteps of Genghis Khan and travelling from Mongolia to Hungary on horseback. It is a journey of some 10,000 kilometres involving temperature extremes from 54 degrees to minus 52 degrees.

The Lifetime of Adventure Award went to Greg Mortimer. He and Tim Macartney-Snape became the first Australians to climb Everest in 1984.

Mr Mortimer was with the Hall family at their Blue Mountains home when it was thought Mr Hall had died, and he wanted to pay tribute to the partners of adventurers who "let their loved one go, when they know what`s going on".

Because of what he put them through, Mr Hall plans to do most of his future adventuring with his wife, Barbara Scanlan, and their two sons.

Dick Smith, the chairman of the society, started the awards 20 years ago "to encourage the spirit of adventure in young Australians".

With the centenary of Douglas Mawson`s Antarctic expedition looming, Mr Smith said he would like to sponsor a team of young Australians to follow in the explorer`s footsteps.

Tribute was paid at the awards to another Australian mountaineer, Sue Fear, who died in May climbing in Nepal, and Ms Scanlan said her husband felt losing his fingertips was a small price to pay for avoiding the same fate.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20467917-1702,00.html