Climbing World loses one of the finest Australian climbers

June 14th 2009

Mick Parker on the summit of Makalu

Mick Parker, a 36-year-old high altitude climber, died in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu on 4th June, after having successfully scaled the world’s fifth highest peak.

Exactly two weeks before he succumbed to dissipated pulmonary and cerebral oedema, a build-up of fluids in the lungs that could be related to his high altitude climb, the Australian had summitted Mount Makalu together with British mountaineer, Roland Hunter.

“Mick and I had a very enjoyable expedition, however, if it had not been for Mick I probably would not have made it as he went ahead and broke trail,” Hunter said. “He was a very strong climber but he never talked much about his mountaineering achievements.”

Parker had been climbing in the Himalaya for about ten years and scaled five 8,000m peaks, including Cho Oyu and Manaslu in Nepal, and Gasherbrum I and Broad Peak in Pakistan. He had attempted several others, one of which was K2, the second highest mountain in the world. He was planning on going back to Pakistan to tackle this challenging mountain this summer.

Australian mountaineer Andrew Lock, who has already stood on top of 13 of the 14 8,000m peaks, described Parker as the ‘quintessential Aussie achiever’. “Mick didn’t pursue the limelight but just kept doing his thing and loving it. He was quite a humanitarian and I know of a few cases where he delayed his summit push as he was helping other people.”

Parker, who was known for managing his expeditions on a shoestring, always kept a low profile, even when surrounded by other mountaineers. “Whenever Mick came back from an expedition and I asked him about it, he was always very modest and was more interested in what other people did,” said Judy Smith, a fellow Australian here in Kathmandu.  

He was also one of the few Himalayan climbers who, as a purist, never used supplementary oxygen for his ascents. “He absolutely loved climbing and he was focused on climbing in good style – small teams, no gas,” said Lock.

This view is certainly shared by most mountaineers, who had been on expeditions with Parker. “He maintained a climbing agenda that would have been the envy of many sponsored climbers, but did this on his own and on a limited budget. He seemed to always be pushing the envelope with everything he did.  He packed a lot of life into his shortened years,” said Gary Pfisterer, who climbed on Kangchenjunga with him in 2003.

“I will remember Mick as compassionate to the underprivileged and a person who loved to laugh, tell stories and listen to his music”, remembers Neil Bosch, who was on one of Parker’s Manaslu expeditions.

Parker’s first Himalayan peak was Ama Dablam (6,814m), which he scaled in 1999 and from that point onwards he was hooked on the Himalaya, both in Nepal and Pakistan.

“Mick had a real affection for the people of Nepal and Pakistan and he always developed a very strong relationship with the support crew. After an expedition, he would often stay behind and hang out with the locals and stay in their houses,” Hunter said.

What made Parker a little bit different from many other mountaineers was his big interest in the local cultures and in Buddhist art. Rather than just going to Nepal to climb, he spent quite a bit of time in Kathmandu, absorbing the culture and the every-day-life of the city and attending a Thanka (Buddhist art) painting course.

Even though he was known as a very quiet guy, he is also remembered as a bit of an entertainer.

“On Manaslu he brought his guitar, even though he could not play much. However, he was always happy for others to play and he sang along,” said Keith Sanford, who climbed Manaslu with Parker in 2003.

And, according to Ben Grayling, one of Parker’s closest friends he was also a keen photographer, ‘who was almost as obsessed behind the lens as he was with climbing the hills’.

“I remember one incident on Manaslu in 2008. We were climbing without a rope and all of a sudden Mick disappeared up to his armpits in a crevasse that had opened up. The ironical thing was that literally dozens of climbers had tramped over this same piece of ground time and time again over the last couple of weeks, and it was Mick who went through... and he was probably one of the lightest guys on the hill,” Grayling remembers.

“But the funny thing was that in the ensuing panic to get Mick back onto solid ground he yelled out to all involved for someone to grab his camera and snap off a photo! That photo was never taken but Mick was one hell of a levelheaded guy. “

However, once back in Australia, Parker enjoyed spending as much time in the bush as he enjoyed climbing mountains, and he was known for his great love for snakes.

“He was very gentle with snakes, but he could also bore you to death with stories about these reptiles,” remembers Damien Gildea, another climbing partner.

However, it was not only reptiles Parker was fascinated by. “ He once followed a bird of prey in his car. After about one hour the bird disappeared and Mick noticed that he was completely lost in the bush; it took him several hours to find his way back,” recalls Hunter. “It seems appropriate that he will be laid to rest in a bush cemetery”.

Parker had become quite an institution in the Nepalese capital and once you saw Mick wandering around the streets of Thamel, Kathmandu’s tourist district, you knew that the climbing season had started.

The mountaineering world has lost a truly committed and dedicated mountaineer and Mick shall be greatly missed.

Billi Bierling, mountaineering journalist, Kathmandu