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Havachatwithhexy... 19-Feb-2006 At 12:56:00 PM The HEX

Message

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ithomas
16/02/2006
11:01:33 AM

>Ken McConnell was not a bushwalker or inexperienced climber. He was a gentle soul >with a wicked wit. Many Tasmanian climbers such as Lyle Closs, Ian Lewis, Bob >McMahon, Bryan Kennedy and loads of others enjoyed days out with Ken in the early >and mid seventies. Mainlanders including Peter Morris and Ben Maddison were also >very good friends of Ken. Ken was a noted repository of Tasmanian rockclimbing >folklore up until the point where sportclimbing accelerated change. He completed his >medical degree and was a highly competent, supportive and socially progressive >doctor. Although he never climbed at the highest levels on rock, he became a very >skilled mountaineer...

... who pushed his luck ...

'...It was a difficult task - fresh in Dr McConnell's mind was another incident three years ago when he had to bury a fellow expeditioner who died from a pulmonary edema. An added danger was their location. Dr McConnell had to break a critical rule of mountaineering by camping in an area vulnerable to rock fall while waiting for the helicopter. "We were terrified. The camp was covered in shattered giant rocks which had fallen from a great height at a great speed," he said.

"On the last night we heard a lot of rocks coming down and stopping at various bottlenecks which was very frightening." In such cases, experience means little. "It doesn't matter if you've climbed Everest 50 times, if you get hit by a rock at 200km/h it doesn't really matter."...'

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