Passion for heights helps charity
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the first summit of Mount Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, and two local businessmen participated in the celebrations in London.
Cameron Treleaven, proprietor of Aquila Books on 16th Avenue N.W., and Byron Smith, owner of Byron Smith Ford in Strathmore, were involved in commemorative events there and will carry on the celebrations this weekend in Calgary.
Treleaven is known internationally as one of the premier antiquarian book dealers and an authority on mountain climbing and polar exploration. He met George Lowe, Hilary’s New Zealand friend and climber/photographer with the 1953 expedition many years ago at the Banff Mountain Festival and kept in touch with Lowe and his wife Mary, visiting them on his many buying trips to the U.K.
After Lowe died, Treleaven was able to purchase his library that included a very rare copy of the Mount Everest Reconnaissance Expedition signed by Mallory and all members of that team.
He had discussed a special catalogue of Everestrelated material with his English colleague, Stuart Leggatt of Meridian Rare Books, who had been able to secure the library of Michael Ward, the doctor on the first successful Everest climb, and together they had amassed almost 500 items — books, photographs, pamphlets, autographed letters and artifacts — over the past five years. The catalogue was published with a foreword by Jan Morris, expedition correspondent for The Times who was responsible for getting the news to Queen Elizabeth at the time of her coronation.
The signed Mallory item sold for £12,500.
And Treleaven and Leggatt also funded Letters from Everest, a collection of letters from Lowe to his sister in New Zealand throughout the time of the climb.
It included photographs seen for the first time and 60 special editions were signed by Jan Morris, Hillary’s son Peter and the editor Huw Lewis Jones. The book launch was at Sotheran’s Fine Books and Prints off Piccadilly.
Smith was invited to attend the Queen’s reception at the Royal Geographical Society.
He has climbed the seven highest peaks on each continent and after having to abandon his first Everest attempt in 1998 was successful in reaching the summit of the world’s highest mountain in 2000. Besides running a very successful Ford dealership, he is a soughtafter motivational speaker and vice-president of the Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation.
The foundation receives and maintains funds to preserve the heritage and improve the quality of life of the South Khumbu region of Nepal, primarily in the areas of health and education. On Friday, it’s holding its eighth annual fundraising gala, chaired by Smith, at the Fairmont Palliser.
Among the impressive slate of speakers is Appa Sherpa who has been to the top of Everest 21 times, Brent Bishop, whose father was the first American to summit, and Peter Athans, who has been to the summit seven times and is currently program director of the Khumbu Climbing Center.
Zeke O’Connor, founder and executive director of the foundation, will be at the dinner and also at Aquila Books on Saturday afternoon from 1 to 3 p.m., along with other summiteers, to sign copies of his book Journey with the Sherpas.
I was saddened to learn Evelyn De Mille passed away. She began working in the Eaton’s book department in 1945 and rose to own her own successful Evelyn De Mille Books. She also served as the first female president of the Canadian Booksellers Association.
A well-known philanthropist, De Mille donated a page of the Gutenberg Bible to the University of Calgary that is a treasure of its library.
Kudos to the good folks at Willow Park Wines and Spirits — and Cathy Simpson & Associates who added more than 75 helpers — in putting on another marvellous gala for its 20th charity auction last Saturday featuring fine foods from local restaurants and some of the world’s best wineries.
Topping off a week of events the night added another $280,000 to its Vintage Fund in support of local charities; this year earmarked for Alberta Flood Relief projects.