Pioneer dies
NATIONAL: Had the cards fallen differently, another Edmund could have adorned the Kiwi $5 note and earned global praise for his mountaineering feats.
Had the cards fallen differently, another Edmund could have adorned the Kiwi $5 note and earned global praise for his mountaineering feats.
Edmund Cotter took part in the first New Zealand Himalayan expedition in 1951 with Sir Edmund Hillary, two years before Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first to ascend Mt Everest. Cotter died in Christchurch on Thursday, aged 90.
Guy Cotter said his father was always adventurous.
‘‘From when he was quite young, he used to go tramping in the hills in and around Arthur’s Pass and other Canterbury mountain regions, like the Arrowsmiths.
‘‘His father was also a mountaineer, so that got him into it.’’
In 1951, Cotter was one of four men, along with Hillary, George Lowe and Earle Riddiford, who took part in the first New Zealand Himalayan expedition.
Their mission was to conquer Mukut Parbat, an unclimbed mountain. Cotter and Riddiford, and a Sherpa guide named Pasang Dawa Lama, reached the summit but Hillary and Lowe never made it to the top.
This success impressed the British, and led to the inclusion of Hillary and Lowe in the famous 1953 expedition, where Hillary and Norgay summitted Mt Everest for the first time.
The two climbers who actually completed the climb of Mukut Parbat, Cotter and Riddiford, were not chosen for the trip.
‘‘Naturally anybody would have loved to be considered for future expeditions, but I don’t think he felt animosity towards those guys,’’ Guy Cotter said.
‘‘He took it all in his stride. He was actually very forgiving about all of that in the end.’’
Cotter said his father held a friendship with George Lowe for many years and often visited him in Britain.
‘‘A big part of [climbing] for him was sharing the experience with other people. He was a very social person and always maintained a love of climbing and the fellowship of the rope.’’
Cotter remained an active climber for many years, and was part of a team that completed first ascents of mountains across South America.
‘‘That was the sort of thing he loved doing, the lightness and freedom of being [part of] a small group in new mountains and new terrain,’’ Guy Cotter said. ’’It was really the heyday of semi-technical mountain exploration.’’
Old age did not stop Cotter, and he joined his son on several expeditions to Nepal. Guy Cotter now runs Adventure Consultants, a mountaineering company that leads climbing expeditions up Mt Everest and other peaks.
‘‘He came with us to Everest Base camp one time when he was 70 years old and one time he walked in with us when he was 80.
‘‘He just loved the intensity of everything that was going on, it was light years away from the type of expeditions they were doing back in the early days.’’
Cotter, the last surviving member of the 1951 expedition, died peacefully at Edith Cavell Rest Home, in Christchurch, on October 19.
His funeral is at The Mcfaddens Centre, St Albans, Christchurch, 1pm on October 25.