As part of a Rotary fundraiser to beat polio, Stanwell Park Hang Gliders Club member Ken Hutt plans to fly a paraglider off Everest in April.
Our 'Community Champions' filmmaker Iris Huizinga caught up with Ken at Bald Hill.
When paraglider Ken Hutt was climbing Cho Oyu, the sixth-highest mountain in the world, someone told him he should bring his glider next time. Ken thought: “If I am going to do such a silly thing, I want to do it for a good cause.”
Ken is a long-time Stanwell Park Hang Gliders Club member and a member of the Rotary Club in Berry, where he found his good cause: eradication of polio. Now he aims to fly a paraglider from Mount Everest. Ken and his team boarded a plane to Nepal on March 28.
The plan was that, after he was acclimatised, Ken would jump off the world’s highest peak. The 62-year-old has become very passionate about polio eradication. “Polio has been endemic throughout the world for many, many years, way back in the 50s and 60s. We don’t have polio in Australia anymore. Although we still immunise our children for it. Despite polio’s eradication in Australia, there are still people suffering from its after-effects.
“We have 40,000 people suffering … they got polio as a kid and they are still having polio symptoms. As they get older, those symptoms get worse. I focus on eradication, although I now have this personal contact with Gary – a guy who walks with callipers and two sticks. He put his hand on my shoulder and he said: ‘You know you’re flying for us, don’t you?’ I wanted to say something and I just choked up.”
Only a handful of people have paraglided off Mount Everest’s summit before (reports vary between three and four) and if Ken succeeds, he will be the oldest by a long stretch.
“We have a saying: there are old mountaineers and bold mountaineers, but there are no old, bold mountaineers ... When I’m on the mountain, it will be most likely just myself [who asks]: is it flyable?
“My comfort zone is probably a little bit larger than most other people, but as long as it is within my comfort zone and I’m prepared to push a little bit, that’s probably enough to achieve what we’re trying to achieve. It’s a four-kilometre descent from Mount Everest.
“At Bald Hill, we have air that is very thick. It’s very supportive and paragliding is a sport where we rely on the wind and the air to hold the glider up. On top of Mount Everest there is a third of [air] density of what it is at sea level …
“The glider doesn’t perform the same at altitude. They fly much faster and the gliders sink rate – the speed they come down to earth – is much greater. “So I’ve got to take those things into consideration, but I also have the ability to launch a glider from 8000 metres.”
