Climbers make their way up the the final lip of the Khumbu icefall before entering the western cwm, in May 2010, on their way to summit Mt Everest.

On the AG Society funded expedition, Australian husband and wife team, Brad Jackson and Sandy Hoby successfully climbed the world’s highest mountain (8848 m), raising funds for research of bowel cancer, of which Sandy is a survivor.

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Climbers make their way up the Khumbu icefall in May 2010, on their way to summit Mt Everest. Says Australian mountaineer Brad Jackson: “This was on our last push through the icefall. The large block of ice on the left hand of the frame reveals the instability of the icefall. The icefall re-arranged itself every time we went through, with crevasses opening and closing and ice blocks as large as houses forming and collapsing.”

Australian husband and wife team, Brad Jackson and Sandy Hoby successfully climbed the world’s highest mountain, raising funds for research of bowel cancer, of which Sandy is a survivor.

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Sandy Hoby, making her way up the western cwm to camp 2, on Mt Everest in May, 2010. Most of the Everest summit is visible with Lhotse in the centre background.

“The walk between camp 1 and 2 can be incredibly hot; we would often strip down to t-shirts if not windy,” says husband and fellow mountaineer, Brad Jackson. “Caution is required though; the first time, I forgot to put sun block on my throat and on the back of my arms, burning both severely.”

Sandy and Brad successfully climbed the world’s highest mountain, raising funds for research of bowel cancer, of which Sandy is a survivor.

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Climbers make their way up to the summit of Mt Everest in May 2010, about three quarters of the way through the Khumbu icefall.

“The first time for us took about eight hours but as we become acclimatised we could whittle this down to less than five hours,” says Brad Jackson.

Brad and wife Sandy Hoby, on an AG Society funded trip, successfully climbed the world’s highest mountain, raising funds for research of bowel cancer, of which Sandy is a survivor.

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Climbers on make their way up to the summit of Mt Everest in May 2010 under clear weather.

Says Aussie mountaineer Brad Jackson: “We were actually fairly lucky in many aspects of this trip but we appreciated the cloudy weather on the climb/walk between camps 1 and 2. The sundog halo formation around the sun was from memory considered the precursor to high winds.”

On the AG Society funded expedition were Brad Jackson and Sandy Hoby, who successfully climbed the world’s highest mountain, raising funds for research of bowel cancer, of which Sandy is a survivor.

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Mountain climbers descend the Hillary Step, just below the summit of Mt Everest.

“This pic was taken after we summited and had stopped to change oxygen bottles very close to the South Summit. The Hillary Step may look crowded but on the 24th May there were relatively few people attempting the summit and the traffic was mostly one-way, meaning most climbers could get through the bottlenecks with relative ease,” says Brad Jackson.

Brad and Sandy Hoby, on an AG Society funded trip, successfully climbed the world’s highest mountain, raising funds for research of bowel cancer, of which Sandy is a survivor.

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Brad Jackson and Sandy Hoby, on an AG Society funded trip, on the summit of Mt Everest.

“A very happy moment” says Brad. “Our summit bid was marred by terrible weather and low visibility but on the upside, it meant the peak was not busy. Once again, it was with much luck that we managed to summit together. Sandy had been the stronger climber for most of our summit attempt but was caught behind some climbers close to the South Summit. I had been delayed and separated from Sandy as I was initially slower and had stopped to help a climber in trouble. Once I was free to climb again, the path ahead was clear and managed to catch up to Sandy at the South Summit. From then on, till we got back to basecamp 2 days later, we probably were never more than five metres away from each other.”

On the AG Society-sponsored expedition, they raised funds for research of bowel cancer, of which Sandy is a survivor.

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