Ain't No Mountain High Enough - 26 May, 2026

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]Morning. I mentioned yesterday that heading into the weekend, couple of young Australians created history for different reasons climbing Mount Everest.

[00:00:09]River Ahmad became the first Afghan woman to have done it now living in Melbourne and Bianca Adler became the youngest Australian to have done it at age 18 and their their joy was something to behold. It was it was lovely.

[00:00:24]Of course, it's not the same kind of thing as when people do it for the first time.

[00:00:28]I'll get to Sir Edmund Hillary in just a moment.

[00:00:31]But people who do those things that others thought were impossible, that's quite something, isn't it? Whether it's the early explorers like Cook and all the others setting off on adventures that some people thought they'd tip over the edge of the earth when they got past the horizon.

[00:00:46]I had the chance to interview Roger Bannister once in some broadcast from England. Sir Roger was the first person to smash the 4-minute mile barrier, which they literally thought was impossible at the time.

[00:00:59]Even many doctors and Sir Roger was a uh a neurosurgeon. Many doctors thought the effort required to break the 4-minute mile would actually kill you.

[00:01:11]But uh Bannister went ahead and did it anyway and once he showed it could be done that it literally was possible others quickly followed including Australia's John Landy and and plenty of others.

[00:01:25]Indeed, there was always word that an American actually broken it some weeks before, but believing it was impossible and no one would believe him never mentioned it.

[00:01:36]It's probably not true.

[00:01:37]>> [snorts] >> Anyway, Sir Roger Bannister was a delightful man and uh very modest as most great champions are.

[00:01:46]As was Neil Armstrong, first man to walk on the moon.

[00:01:51]Others have since followed. It's interesting, too, that I've often heard Neil Armstrong and Roger Bannister described as boring.

[00:02:00]It's a bad word.

[00:02:02]Says a lot more about the people using the word than those they're describing.

[00:02:07]How How could you describe somebody like Neil Armstrong as boring? He loved to fly. He was an engineer. He uh He walked on the moon.

[00:02:16]But because he couldn't explain it and didn't want to explain it in a way that his interviewers wanted, they thought he was boring.

[00:02:26]Crazy stuff.

[00:02:28]They probably said the same thing about Sir Edmund Hillary, who with Tenzing Norgay in 1953 became the first to climb Mount Everest.

[00:02:40]More than 8,400 m. It's a long way up.

[00:02:44]And again at the time, many had tried and many thought it impossible.

[00:02:49]But nearly everything human beings have thought to be impossible is only that until somebody actually does it.

[00:02:55]So, you wonder what things we describe as impossible now will be shown to be not so impossible not too far down the road.

[00:03:04]I had the chance to interview Sir Edmund Hillary on one of his visits to Brisbane at one point. Tall man, strong, humble.

[00:03:12]He was getting on by then.

[00:03:15]And we talked about We talked about a lot of things. His philanthropic work, his uh his initial desire to climb Everest, how he did it, the consequences of doing it.

[00:03:27]He got on with his life pretty well. A lot of people don't.

[00:03:31]Think of those who went to the moon.

[00:03:34]It's hard sometimes to experience things that others haven't and then try to talk about it and then come back to ordinary life. You know, Buzz Aldrin was one of the first to walk on the moon. He was part of that first mission.

[00:03:47]But he he He handle it all. Turned to drink.

[00:03:52]Pretty good Buzz.

[00:03:53]But he got himself together later on.

[00:03:55]But it was hard.

[00:03:57]Others turned to religion, Jim Irwin.

[00:03:59]Was one of those who walked on the moon.

[00:04:02]And he found it difficult to come back but sorted it out as well.

[00:04:07]But Sir Edmund Hillary was a a really interesting man.

[00:04:11]And I remember in our chat which went on for some time, I said to him near the end, I do think there's a cheeky But I said I do think there's one thing that history has wrong about your climb to the summit of Mount Everest and they stayed there for 15 minutes once they got there.

[00:04:34]And he he kind of looked at me quizzically as if to wonder what was coming next.

[00:04:39]And I said I don't think you climbed it because it was there.

[00:04:45]That was the common refrain. Why did you climb it? Because it was there.

[00:04:48]I said Sir Edmund, I don't think you climbed it because it was there.

[00:04:52]And he looked at me I said I think you climbed it because you were there.

[00:04:57]And he smiled.

[00:04:58]Have a great day.