Hillary Expedition
Hillary Expedition
New Zealand has always been seen as a nation of great adventurers and achievers.
This courageous spirit is epitomised by the feats of one of our most respected Kiwis, Sir Edmund Hillary.
Hillary Expedition updates
The Hillary Expedition vision
The SPARC Hillary Expedition initiative aims to inspire and encourage New Zealanders to take on exciting, world-class physical challenges in the great outdoors.
SPARC envisages that Hillary Expedition adventurers will be role models, encouraging Kiwis to set their sights high, dream 'big dreams' and embark on a lifetime of physical activity.
SPARC Hillary Expeditions 2008/2009
SPARC has awarded grants to seven teams of inspiring adventurers for the SPARC Hillary Expedition 2008/2009 (see the media release).
- Member of the Hillary Expedition '04 on a mountain top
The teams are:
- Adventure Philosophy – Lifeblood of the Nation Expedition. $5000. During 2009, the group aims to complete five exploratory first descents of New Zealand rivers; descents of five extreme and world-renowned river trips; complete five of New Zealand’s classic source to sea river journeys; descend five nationally significant river systems currently under threat of hydro-electric development; and will work on a book about their explorations.
- The NZ Extreme Caving Team. $15,000. The group will spend up to three months exploring the Ellis Basin Cave System in Mt Arthur Kahurangi National Park, searching for a cave that could be more than 1200m in depth. The cave has been explored as far as an underground sump, where the whole cave goes underwater. The group will explore this with dive equipment and then use a siphon to lower the water level to allow cavers to explore the rest of the cave.
- The New Zealand Nyambo Konka Expedition 2009. $10,000. This group of kiwi mountaineers will make an attempt to scale the unclimbed 6114m Nyambo Konka Peak in Sichuan province in western China. Departing in April, the expedition is expected to take four to six weeks and the climb will be made ``alpine style’’ where the climbers carry their food and equipment as they go rather than set up a line of stocked camps.
- New Zealand Himalayan Big Wall Expedition. $15,000. In July-August 2009, the expedition will travel to the Charakusa Valley in Karakorum, Pakistan to attempt to free climb a significant new route on 1300m Nafees Spire, on K7. The group will spend up to 16 days living on small hanging ledges as they climb the vertical rock wall. If successful, this would be the hardest free technical route made by New Zealanders in the Himalaya. The climbers also plan to make other fast, alpine style ascents of other large walls in the area.
- Inspiring Performance 2009. $20,000. Trans-Atlantic rower and South Pole explorer Jamie Fitzgerald will work with Graeme Dingle’s Foundation for Youth Development on a trek from Cape Reinga to Bluff along the 3000km Te Araroa trail with groups of New Zealand secondary students who have been identified as `at risk’. Each group of students will spend between three and five days (covering 100-150km) with Jamie and other leaders, as they take part in activities that incorporate both ‘adventure’ and ‘experiential learning’. Examples along the way are climbing Mt Ruapehu, shearing sheep in the South Island high country, crossing Cook Strait, and public speaking at businesses in towns along the way. The trip will run between November 2009 and February 2010.
- Exploration Antarctica. $20,000. The objective is the West Ridge to the summit of Mt Parry. The climbers will sail by ketch across the Southern Ocean from Argentina to Brabant Island off the Antarctic Peninsula to make the first ascent of the West Ridge, a striking 2520m long ridge which rises straight out of the sea. Keen to beat the rest of the world in tackling this unclimbed West Ridge, the group will then return under sail across the Southern Ocean back to Argentina. A film of the expedition, which will take place over five weeks in January-February 2010, is planned.
- Batura Glacier Expedition 2009. $10,000. The destination is the Batura Massif in the Karakoram Mountains of northern Pakistan. Over eight weeks, during June and July this year, the climbers will travel the length of the 57km Batura Glacier – which has not seen climbers for several decades – to attempt first ascents of the south faces of 7142m Kampire Dior and 6934m Kuk Sar.
The inaugural SPARC Hillary Expedition took place in 2004. A group of five adventurers completed the world's first full traverse of South-East Asia's mighty Mekong River - known by locals as 'Nine Dragons'. They covered more than 3,000 kilometres by trekking, mountain biking and rafting. The group travelled from the high snows of Tibet, all the way to the seas of Vietnam.
In 2006, five groups of inspirational adventurers were granted funding through the Hillary Expedition initiative.
Find out more about the 2006/07 Hillary Expeditions.
Updated | 03 Jul 2009.
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