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Galway Advertiser 2004/2004_02_19/GA_1902_E1_010.pdf
10 N E W S
Galway Advertiser
February 19 2004
Peak practise
This year Tuam auctioneer John Joyce hopes to complete a remarkable love affair with mountains by climbing Everest as part of the Irish Everest 2004 team. He told KIERAN HAYES how he got hooked on heights.
There are moments when we sense change in our lives. Something is in the air. A door is opening into a life we hadn't thought possible. John Joyce is describing such a turning point in his life: "My dad was born on Lissoughter hill, which is between the Maumturks and the Twelve Bens. About twelve years ago I climbed Lissoughter and when I got to the top I looked around, and saw over to Derryclare and the Twelve Bens and thought, I'd like to climb that. So I went to Derryclare and up Ben Baun, which is Galway's highest, and then Mulreea, which is Connacht's highest. After that, it became an obsession. Some guys play golf, I took to the hills. It just took off." All the way to the world's highest. In 2003 John was part of the Irish Everest expedition that successfully placed two Irish men, and a Galway sliotar and caman, on the world's highest mountain peak. John had given the hurley, inscribed with Gallimh abu, to Ger McDonnell, who pucked the sliotar at the South Col, 28,000 feet above sea level. "There was never a sliotar at that altitude before," says John, smiling. The mad-cap humour, you suspect, was a tonic for the spirit, helping divert the mind from the lurking danger and fear that are part of any summit attempt. Antiquated Russian helicopters that lose their rotors and crash, than running up and down he now takes time to stop, look around, and drink in his surroundings. He gives a vivid depiction of the approach trek to Everest, the mountain villages decked by flourishing rhododendron, the first view of the mountain from the Buddhist monastery in Tenbosche, as red-and orange robed monks chant their morning prayer. His love of the place, and the people, is palpable, and it is drawing him for a return journey this year as part of the Irish Everest 2004 expedition, when he will make an attempt on the sacred summit. Tuam is John's base camp, where he lives with his wife Siobhan and runs his own insurance and auctioneering buisness. In his home outside town, John shows me his climbing gear. The thermal suit he will wear was worn by team member Pat Falvey when he summited Everest in 1995. John will be doing his best to see it finds its way to the top again. Intensive preparation will include climbing and fitness weekends in Kerry -- and don't be surprised if you call on him and he's in his back yard half way up a ladder, with his ropes and crampons. Siobhan will also be trekking to basecamp with John this April. If all goes to plan, on May 11, he will be standing on the summit of the world. It will be his 44th birthday.
John Joyce. Photo: Mike Shaughnessy
treacherous ice-fields seamed with crevasses, avalanches, blood-clots in the lungs or brain, frostbite; anything that could go wrong, might go wrong, but on Everest, Murphy's law is not an option. "On Everest, Murphy's law is not an option. " John spent six weeks living in a tent in a frozen rocky pit at 18,000 feet. It was a dream come true. Uncomfortable it may
John (right) with fellow Everest team members Pat Falvey and Claire O'Leary.
have been, with temperatures swinging from minus to plus twenty within the space of hours, yet it was the culmination of a boyhood fairytale fascination with Everest. Waking at base camp one, at the foot of the mountain, where teams assemble before making the staggered climb upwards, he'd rub his eyes just to be sure it was real. "I always had a fascination with Everest, even as a kid. It represented mystery and adventure. I never thought I'd see it, never mind try to climb it." From this starting point at base camp, Everest was described by team leader Pat Falvey as "towering above you, vast, intimidating and insurmountable". John conveys a similar sense of awestruck reverence when speaking of the mountain known locally as Chomolangma, the Great Mother. The sherpas burn juniper as a blessing and a sign of respect before each climb, but every year the Mother claims a terrible tribute in the lives of some of her sons and daughters. Seven people died during the time John was on Everest. As base camp manager with responsibility for communications, he held one end of the thin red line that linked his fellow climbers to earth, and safety. The most frightening
moment of the 70-day expedition was when atmospheric conditions hampered radio contact; that thin line was broken, and John didn't know if his team mates were living or dead. "When you reach the South Col at 26,000 feet, you are in what is called the "debt zone". Once you start moving from that your body cannot recover, you're in debt mode. Oxygen is down to thirty per cent of sea level, and you can only walk 10 to 12 steps per minute. We lost radio contact between camp four on the South Col and the summit, and we knew that Hannah and Pat were in trouble. George had already been taken out, and Clare was down. Until Mick reached the summit and radioed us we didn't know what was happening. It was tense. When we heard back it was a relief. Then it was out with the Irish flag!" Success depends on teamwork, and climbing Everest demands and forges relationships of "massive trust". John comments: "When you're in a confined area with other people it's never easy, but you get to know each other very well. And yourself as well. It's a complete selfexamination. You're pushed. It's all about taking care of each other, and taking care of
yourself." Facing obstacles and fears on the path to realising his dream, his Everest experience taught him that, at the limit of human endurance, people begin to "appreciate the simple things in life". Climbing brings him to life: perhaps it is there that he meets himself, his own
limits, abilities and fears, most intensely. "Everyone has his or her own Everest," he says. "After a day on the mountain, you know that you are alive." His attitude to climbing has altered over years, and it is less about the challenge now than the experience. Rather
Pat Falvey and John Joyce will give a presentation on the Irish Everest Expedition 2003 at the Presentation Secondary School, Tuam, at 8pm on February 26.
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Getting ready for the off. John practises in Connemara.
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