SUMMIT 8000

Thanks to everyone who came along to the Summit 8000 speaking tour.  I hope you enjoyed it.  The tour kept expanding and by the end of 2014 I’d been to every capital city in Australia except Darwin, plus a few regional centres.  Beechworth Victoria is next with a presentation on 26 February 2015. (Details on my website here.)  Thanks to World Expeditions, Paddy Palin, Melbourne University Press and Scouts South Australia for their support of the tour.

Summit 8000 the book has been doing well and has now sold around 8000 print copies across Australia and New Zealand plus a bunch of e-books.  Thanks to all of you who bought a copy or copies.  I’ve had some great feedback and it’s really gratifying to hear that my story has affected people in one way or another. (For the better, I hope!)  Print copies are still available in most bookstores and on my website here.

I’ve now picked up a publishing contract in North America.  It will be in hard cover and should be released in July 2015.  I can’t wait to get a copy of the hardcover myself.  I’m working on a UK publishing contract and hope to have good news about that soon.

Latest Adventures

Once the speaking slowed down for Christmas I was lucky to have a fabulous range of experiences.  First up was a couple of weeks in New Zealand climbing with a mate from Canberra, Liam Silk.  We were blessed with 5 straight days of perfect weather – almost unheard of in the Mt Cook national park.  After a few warm up climbs, we used the final day of the good weather spell to hit Aoraki/Mt Cook.  We set out from Plateau Hut at 1am on 16 December and reached the summit at 9.30am in very warm conditions.  After a careful down climb and a long slog back down the Linda Glacier in woefully deep snow, we were back at the hut at 6pm; a 17 hour day. Fantastic! I’ve posted a few photos on facebook.

Next up was an opportunity to join the Sydney to Hobart yacht race on board Ausreo, a 47.7 foot Benetau.  With twelve crew on board we headed out through the heads into a brisk headwind which gave us pretty slappy seas for the first 24 hours and an uneasy stomach.  But then the wind changed to a northerly and we spent the next 48 hours whizzing down the coast and across Bass Strait under spinnaker.  Our top speed was 18 knots.  Unfortunately the wind was a little light for our 13 tonne yacht, which does better under heavier conditions such as we had at the beginning of the race.  So we didn’t win but that didn’t matter.  At 12.45am on December 30^th we tied up in Hobart. A great race, lots of fun, new friends and a big item ticked off my bucket list.  There are photos on facebook and here’s a short You Tube video from the yacht.

Community and Charity activities

In late January I headed to South Australia to take part in the 16^th Australian Venture as the Scouts Australia Ambassador.  You have to love the Scouts!  It was absolutely pouring with torrential rain but that barely interfered with proceedings. There were smiles all round and I could see that they all had a terrific time, learnt a lot, experienced great adventures and made plenty of new friends.

The next charity challenge is a fund raising 145 kilometre cycle from Sydney to the Southern Highlands for the Sir David Martin Foundation in early March. It’s an awesome and really worthwhile charity that raises money for programs that assist youth in crisis. While Scouts is an extraordinary movement for the development of our youth, the Sir David Martin Foundation picks up those who missed the opportunity or fell by the wayside, often through no fault of their own. They deserve a second chance. Interested in taking part?  Follow this link.   You can ride as an individual participant, create your own team or join my team (Andrew Lock and mates).  Or if you’d like to sponsor me for the ride, click here.

In March I’m off to Nepal for a fund raising trek for the Australian Himalayan Foundation. Unfortunately that’s full up but there will be more opportunities in the future.

Corporate Speaking

With the media attention that the book and speaking tour brought, my corporate speaking picked up and I spent most of September and November speaking to corporations around the country on leadership, goal setting, risk management and motivation, amongst other subjects. The 2015 speaking season is about to kickoff so if you are interested in having me present at your next conference or event, just email me at info@andrew-lock.com  Check out this link for further information, and testimonials.

Social Media

That’s about all the news for now.  Thanks for your interest.  For more regular updates, keep an eye on facebook (andrew.lock.8000metres), twitter (@andrewlock_oz ), You Tube and of course www.andrew-lock.com