EMSB PRESS RELEASE
ADVENTURER CAPTIVATES ST. MONICA STUDENTS
MONTREAL, NOVEMBER 29, 2010 – Ted Fairhurst, a world renowned adventurer and founder of www.daretoreach.ca, brought his incredible life story and positive message of determination to the students of St. Monica Elementary School in N.D.G. recently, encouraging students to find the strength to climb their own metaphorical mountains.
Fairhurst, a graduate of the English Montreal School Board’s Elizabeth Ballantyne Elementary School and the former Montreal West High (now Royal West), has taken physical fitness to a new level, highlighted by celebrating his 63rd birthday on Mount Everest. Over the course of one hour, Fairhurst shared with students and staff at St. Monica his trek through life, culminating with a riveting story which led him to the top of the world’s highest mountain, accomplishing a lifelong dream.
Born with a passion for adventure, his latest accomplishment was just yet another in a lifetime of physical feats, which begain in 1969 when he hitchhiked from Scotland to Afghanistan. It was then, while in Kathmandu, where Fairhurst met a New Zealand climber who had just returned from a journey to Everest Base Camp and back.
That climber’s story propelled Fairhurst to cross over high mountain passes and tropical valleys to find his way up and over the Khumbu Mountain Range. Alone, with no mountaineering experience, no tent, only a summer sleeping bag, and only potatoes and rice for sustenance, he managed to climb up the Khumbu Glacier to approximately 19,000 feet to Everest Base Camp, spending 32 days alone in the greatest mountain range on earth, surviving only on his energy and wits. Although he did not get to climb Everest on that trip, he vowed to one day return.
While his adventures have taken him to every corner of the globe, climbing the world’s most daunting mountains, Fairhurst has maintained the ideals that everything humans do is learned and as such, humans decide where they want to go and what they want to become – so with this philosophy, he tells students why not use this immense power and Dare to Reach?
A complete video of Fairhurst’s talk at St. Monica can be found at: http://www.vimeo.com/17561421
One can see audio and video footage from Fairhust’s climb of Everest at his website: www.daretoreach.ca.
English Montreal School Board
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"It is not the size of the Mountain,
It is the size of the Dream."
"Strong motivation is the most important factor in getting you to the top" -- Edmund Hillary
"Life is brought down to the basics: if you are warm, regular, healthy, not thirsty or hungry, then you are not on a mountain. . . . Climbing at altitude is like hitting your head against a brick wall - it's great when you stop." Chris Darwin
"Oh, the absolute lethargy of 24,600'. You want to pee, and you lie there for a quarter of an hour making up your mind to look for the pee bottle." Chris Bonnington, 1975
"Because it is there." George Mallory (1886-1924), answer to the question 'Why do you want to climb Mt. Everest ?'.
"I have climbed my mountain ,but I must still live my life" Tenzing Norgay
"Mountains are not fair or unfair, they are just dangerous." Reinhold Messner
"People think that at the top there isn't much room. They tend to think of it as an Everest. My message is that there is tons of room at the top." Margaret Thatcher
"Everest demands your psychological tenacity. You must be stubborn; you must hold fast; you must know why you are there. You must see what you don’t want to see, but be able to remove it from mind’s eye. You must focus on one thing or you will die. Your world is exactly one step at a time." Theodore Fairhurst
"The mountains will always be there, the trick is to make sure you are too." Hervey Voge
"I have not conquered Everest, it has merely tolerated me" Peter Habeler
"Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Howard Thurman
