Tim Macartney-Snape is a man who stands out in a crowd, being seven foot high and having a James Bond square jaw, that is not surprising. There is another aspect of Tim. Maybe it’s the lines of struggle that mark his face, maybe it’s his physical bearing (he makes men his age look old) or maybe it’s his mixed porridge accent and the richness of his conversation?
There is something that comes from listening to him. He is an outstanding rock climber, a man for all climbing seasons - this guy has done stuff. Tim’s resume includes world-renowned mountaineer, explorer, international speaker, author, founder of the outdoor company Sea to Summit, and twice honoured Order of Australia recipient (The Order of Australia medal is “the pre-eminent way Australians recognise the achievements and service of their fellow citizens.”). But, like humans with a story, Tim’s also faced some emotional, physical, and financial hardships.
I first learnt of Tim via a library book called White Limbo, written by his long-time climbing mate and fellow first-ascentionist Lincoln Hall.
There is something that comes from listening to him. He is an outstanding rock climber, a man for all climbing seasons - this guy has done stuff. Tim’s resume includes world-renowned mountaineer, explorer, international speaker, author, founder of the outdoor company Sea to Summit, and twice honoured Order of Australia recipient (The Order of Australia medal is “the pre-eminent way Australians recognise the achievements and service of their fellow citizens.”). But, like humans with a story, Tim’s also faced some emotional, physical, and financial hardships.
I first learnt of Tim via a library book called White Limbo, written by his long-time climbing mate and fellow first-ascentionist Lincoln Hall.
Tim with Lincoln Hall on Mt-Dunagiti, Himalaya. They are inspecting Lincoln's frost-bite. 1978. (Lincoln wrote the book "White Limbo" about their first ascent on the Everest Route.)
The book remains a pictorial feast. Within its heavy cover was the story of the first Australian Team to Summit Mount Everest in 1984 via a new route called, White Limbo, named after 1980s pop tune by the band Australian Crawl.
White Limbo, located far to the right of the traditional Everest climb everyone knows about, remains for the cunning and the brave. It follows the Great Coulior, making its way up the unyielding North Face of Everest with highly technical ice (WI 4+) and rock climbing (YDS 5.9, AU 17), of course, all done at extreme elevations. This is a place reserved for those who know no bounds.
Route illustration from the book White Limbo, Author: Lincoln Hall (made the first ascent with Tim Macartney-Snape
Published: 1985 Kevin Weldon NSW, Australia
Tim and Lincoln Hall on White Limbo, Mt. Everest. Photo courtesy of Tim Macartney-Snape collection.
But Tim didn’t think White Limbo was enough. Challenged by a friend who commented over a beer that you didn’t really climb Everest if you didn’t begin at the sea, Tim returned solo to make a successful, no-supplemental oxygen-ascent of Everest from Sea level to Summit (hence the name of his company). That’s one very long climb – 1126 km (700 miles), 8848 m (29,029 ft), to be exact. Tim crossed rivers and rainforests, and even ran an extra 300 km (185 miles) in five days to get to another border crossing, as the original planned crossing was closed when he arrived. All of this, was completed in three months.
Tim Macartney-Snape
These are remarkable feats, as are his other accomplishments. But I wanted to get to know the man and the climber behind the legend. Who is Tim Macartney-Snape and how would his climbing mates describe him?
Tim tries to live an uncomplicated life these days, whiling away a day on his and his partner’s property in the highlands southwest of Sydney, Australia. A regular day is similar to the rest of us. Tim likes to go for a 10-12 km technical mountain bike ride before dark with dog Raffy. He cooks his tea, likes a read, does some work on his computer and watches tele. He enjoys a show here and there and binges on SBS (Special Broadcasting Service) and Red Bull TV.
Some things haven’t changed. The Macartney-Snape Mountaineer regularly scratches his itch climbing amongst the sandstone escarpement which house the Blue Mountains Crags. Tim is one of us.
Climbing is getting out into the natural world, physically and mentally challenging myself to get in the zone where all the shit in my head and in my world is pushed aside. A place where all that matters is the bit of rock around me and the air beneath my feet, the freedom of being on a cliff.”
Tim’s love of climbing is so in that zone that all climbers understand.
It’s about the joy of movement, working out a move and busting through an impasse that I doubted I could overcome. It’s the everyday stuff like sharing the bond of the rope with your climbing buddy.”
People who have climbed with Tim know of his appetite to climb.
Lisa Vitaris climbs with Tim regularly in the Blue Mountains. These climbs can often be in the mid grade 20 (YDS 5.10c) range and he trends towards multi mixed climbing-fests.
Lisa Vitaris climbs with Tim regularly in the Blue Mountains. These climbs can often be in the mid grade 20 (YDS 5.10c) range and he trends towards multi mixed climbing-fests.
I feel incredibly safe with Tim – he’s extremely practical and always manages to gets us out of tricky situations. He loves a good adventure.”
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Lisa exposes some of Tim’s climbing culture too.
At the end of a climbing day it will always be with a cup of freshly brewed loose leaf tea and homemade cookies.” Being a regular, Tim has some favourite routes in the Blue Mountains, from old time classics to modern gems. I asked him to name a few.
“My favourite climbs in the Blueys? Whoa, there are lots of them! Tim is still cranking, even when preparing this profile, he sent this message
Mid-week, a buddy and I were both a little tired so didn’t want an epic but were happy for adventure so we climbed an old classic Claw (Mike Law) mixed route out at the end of Pierces Pass called Fifty Year Itch (grade 19, 155m – 5.10b, 508 ft).” |
Tim on Disco Biscuit (AU 23, YDS 5..11b)
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He went on to talk the climb up and said this was his favourite area in the Blue Mountains. His appetite for being in the hills and getting amongst it remains undiminished. Adam Darragh, a long-standing Blue Mountains climber, explains Tim the climber.
Something that is really apparent to me is that Tim is a lifer climber who can’t walk away from what gives them so much. Even as standards improve or new generations come along Tim will be out there climbing because he loves it.”
Being a prolific climber over many years has given Tim a unique opportunity to climb broadly. I asked him what is his favourite Australian climbing memory?
It was out in the Little Sandy Desert, rocking up to an untouched 50 metre cliff and climbing clean rock all on gear. No one else from horizon to horizon, endless blue skies, red rock and sand with lots of birds. New lines everywhere, immaculate rock, no cleaning, pure joy”
It’s obvious that Tim is drawn to wild places and that seems to be his true North.
Tim is not shy on playing on the edge in high places. Choosing solid climbing companions enables him to stay mentally psyched and climbing with others has assisted him to stay physically fit. Tim shared with me an experience in 1986 on a new route of Gasherbrum IV - a remote peak in the Karakorum Range of the Himalaya (7925m, 26,000 ft).
Tim is not shy on playing on the edge in high places. Choosing solid climbing companions enables him to stay mentally psyched and climbing with others has assisted him to stay physically fit. Tim shared with me an experience in 1986 on a new route of Gasherbrum IV - a remote peak in the Karakorum Range of the Himalaya (7925m, 26,000 ft).
It was supposed to be summit day. The sun was just about hitting the horizon and my party had to make a decision. Rap back down to warm sleeping bags, a stove to warm our food and forego the summit or bivvy out for a chance for the summit come the next day?”
Tim recalls the reckoning between team mates:
“I reckon we can survive the night without getting frostbite if we dig a cave” I say to Greg [Child], and Tom [Hargis] agrees. Andy [Tuthill] doesn’t want to risk it, so he raps with one of our two ropes. In the dying light of a rare Karakoram evening with the world’s greatest mountains ranked peak by jagged peak to the horizon we claw out a tiny hole in the granular snow to sit the night out, our meagre rope a token of insulation under our bums. Soon we get fidgety. No position is comfortable. If one moves we all move. Hours of shivering came to pass. Talk was sparse, it was too much effort.”
Tim and climbing mates (Greg Child and Tom Hargis) in the snow cave on Gasherbrum IV, 1986. Photo courtesy of the Tim Macartney-Snape collection.
Collecting their wits and warming each other as best as they could after being stuck in such a precarious situation, the party slowly made its way down and safely arrived at their base camp to the surprise of their porters and utterly spanked from the effort.
Critical choices are made by climbers all the time but above 8000m in hostile territory, when the body is tired and nerves are stretched, you need good people who can see through the haze of doubt and stay balanced amongst terror. Tim has found that in himself, but also people he has climbed with. There are some Australian Mountaineers that have made a deep impression on him.
Greg Child was the outstanding one of the 1980’s and remains one of my all-time favourite climbing writers. Then came Andy Lindblade and Athol Whimp, an enduring partnership who I was lucky to climb with on a few occasions. They were very focussed, visionary alpinists and highly accomplished rock climbers.”
I asked Greg Child to share his thoughts of Tim as a climbing companion. The respect was mutual.
Tim was a fantastic partner on Gasherbrum IV. He is indefatigable, positive, resourceful and has a good sense of humour. He made a great climbing experience greater.”
Spending so many years in the Himalaya and climbing throughout the world, Tim has become more reflective when climbing, and of the mountains he climbs. When thinking of Everest, which he knows as a climber and as a guide, he says,
Everest is just another mountain, but it looms large, sitting where it does. It’s now being subjected to what seems like the end play for the human race, which is on the brink of terminal alienation - but it’s not too late I hope!”
It isn’t hard to identify the climber in Tim. He has seen the world from its highest point and confronted his mortality through multiple alpine epics. Knowledge is power but it also brings wisdom to make safer decisions when climbing. I was curious to ask Tim about instinct and intellect and which one comes first in climbing? He made a moot point in reply.
My partner says I have neither!”
Pressed a little, his answer was interesting.
“Intellect is insightful and flexible, I can learn from past climbing events and therefore plan and manage my future ascents. Intuition is not instinct but is a wiser part of ourselves that, if we’re lucky, we can access from time to time when we aren’t consumed by ourselves.”
Tim has a philosophical way of thinking and it surprises me his mates have not nicked-named him Plato or Aristotle. To his credit he has used his intellect and intuition to stay safe and to move well in the Mountains. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he maintains a full set of fingers and toes and still gets out and about regularly.
Tim’s passion for the mountains extends as a guide for World Expeditions. He often works with the people from the Himalaya and has a deep respect for them. Even as I write this, Tim is in Kathmandu sorting gear with local colleagues for a coming trek. The peoples of Nepal and Tibet have taught him a great deal, principally that of human resilience.
Tim’s passion for the mountains extends as a guide for World Expeditions. He often works with the people from the Himalaya and has a deep respect for them. Even as I write this, Tim is in Kathmandu sorting gear with local colleagues for a coming trek. The peoples of Nepal and Tibet have taught him a great deal, principally that of human resilience.
Tough environments make tough people, the people of the Himalaya make the most of difficult circumstances by rising above and almost mocking hardship, they laugh at adversity to overcome it. The irony is that given the opportunity they’re quick to embrace Western civilisation and almost seamlessly adapt to it. We’re all victims of the human condition, underneath we’re all pretty similar.”
Climbing as big and as often as Tim has, there have been days when chance came knocking.
“I was being belayed by a casual belayer at a social ice climbing meet in Switzerland. I was dropped 13 metres to the deck because the guy holding my rope was distracted by the girl next to him, resulting in me fracturing my spine.”
Tim added, “I guess that didn’t impress her in the end!”
Tim has explored every layer of the world above sea level without additional oxygen, by himself and with others. This has enriched him with knowledge and understanding. He has been a part of businesses such as World Expeditions and co-founded Sea to Summit, an outdoor equipment company that emerged from Tim’s need for durable, ultrlight gear for his sea to summit trek of Everest.
Tim is no stranger to talking up himself or his products. It comes with the territory in tight markets. He also knows that the edge of business can cut and being in the mountains has taught him of the long game and to be patient. Being in the public eye and having success has also brought on additional contests.
Tim is no stranger to talking up himself or his products. It comes with the territory in tight markets. He also knows that the edge of business can cut and being in the mountains has taught him of the long game and to be patient. Being in the public eye and having success has also brought on additional contests.
My biggest challenge was when my mate and I were set up by a major media broadcaster.”
As a backstory, a 1995 ABC News program called Four Corners, published a defamatory story (called The Prophet of Oz) about Tim and a business associate.
“It resulted in me losing all my income for several years. We fought back using our own resources against an organisation that didn’t care how much money it spent trying to defend its actions. It took a while but we eventually won our defamation case.”
A while was 13-years, and in that time Tim had to endure the stigma of a lie and the severe loss of income from cancelled speaking engagements. But, as climbers do, Tim tapped into the mind-clearing, spirit-lifting world that is climbing.
His climbing philosophy is simple, “I just try to live life to its fullest extent, I don’t harm anyone else and I try to leave the world a better place.”
That is evident in the climbing Community. I was chatting about this piece with an old mate, Anthony Harris, an alpine guide and keen climber in New Zealand. Anthony recognises the accomplishments of Tim.
His climbing philosophy is simple, “I just try to live life to its fullest extent, I don’t harm anyone else and I try to leave the world a better place.”
That is evident in the climbing Community. I was chatting about this piece with an old mate, Anthony Harris, an alpine guide and keen climber in New Zealand. Anthony recognises the accomplishments of Tim.
To be honest, Tim is in a league of his own. I met Tim as a young kid climbing up by Blue Lake in the mid 1980’s and he inspired me then and he still does today. He is one of the greats of Australasian climbing.”
Tim on "The Nose" (AU 26, 250 m) in Australia's Blue Mountains. Photo Credit: Lisa Vitaris
Even Knighted expeditionary legends like Tim get tired and worn down at times. Just like us, he needs time to refresh his spirit. The mountains (any rugged set will do) and nature have remained his go to place.
Nature for me is endlessly fascinating, beautiful and unbending because it follows natural law. To me it’s more a source of life, it keeps me sorted and is the ultimate playground.”
It is not uncommon to see Tim at a beach south of Sydney having a surf or climbing somewhere in Blue Mountains. He climbs with young and old and remains an active member of the climbing community. I was busting to ask him this one question. Of all of his climbing throughout the world what was his favourite and why? The answer was classic Tim humour,
That’s a bit like a parent of six children being asked who the favourite is!”
Though age and life’s experiences have descended upon Tim, he has not lost his ability to keep pushing his climbing grades and to make plans for high places. He enjoys introducing people to climbing and is full of story. What I have taken from him is not only his great skills as a climber, but also his deep love for climbing and respect for the outdoors. No matter what greatness and accomplishments bless a person in earlier years, a climber’s spirit ultimately prevails in the smallest of daily glories – like an excellent Grade 20 route in the Blue Mountain’s sandstone.
Tim is still surprised by what a day out on the rock will bring and who he might enjoy that with. These are characteristics I seek in a climbing partner. Tim Macartney-Snape can hold my rope any time, however I have a feeling that somehow, he will be leading.
Tim is still surprised by what a day out on the rock will bring and who he might enjoy that with. These are characteristics I seek in a climbing partner. Tim Macartney-Snape can hold my rope any time, however I have a feeling that somehow, he will be leading.
Tim on "The Fear" at the Sydney Sea Cliffs (AU 19R, 5.10b, trad, 40m) First ascent was by friend Mike Law (aka Claw)
WEBSITE: https://www.timmacartneysnape.com/