Best of luck for Everest attempt

Dear Editor

In Tuesday’s PA, I read with interest the intentions of Madderty resident Charles Dewhurst to scale Earth’s highest peak, Mount Everest.

As I contemplate Mr Dewhurst’s efforts, how I remember the Coronation of our present Queen.

On that same day the news filtered through that Sir Edmund Hillary had conquered Everest, it was then likened to the first moon landing.

Very much down to earth on mountains – mere molehills against the mighty Himalayas – I recall as a young lad of 17, joining the Perth section of the Scottish Mountaineering Club, which I don’t hear of today.

My membership was short-lived when I discovered the magic of Scotland’s Munro’s was not for me following several mishaps.

On one occasion high above the Drumochter Pass on a winter’s day I slipped on ice and onto my back gathering speed, but saved by a fellow climber grabbing my arm, just as well as in my path was a rocky drop of many feet.

On another occasion, in the Cairngorms, I slipped on my stomach a good distance on wet snow, which blinded me – getting into my eyes and mouth – and the trouble I endured digging into the snow with an ice axe trying to reach a rope.

I’m afraid climbing was not for me. A year later I looked down on the Munro’s from the cosy seat of a Cessna 172 out of Scone Aerodrome.

Having said that, I am sure I am just one of the PA readers who wish Mr Dewhurst good luck. Thomas Brown Church Street Bankfoot