Mark is a New Zealand mountaineer, winemaker and motivational speaker. He came to school to share with us his inspiring stories.

Mark, like most 11 year old boys, had dreams to become a great rugby player but this soon changed after being inspired by his teacher from Geraldine High School, Bert. Bert was a mountaineer and Mark soon got the bug of climbing and became a professional mountaineer and member of the Search and Rescue in Mt Cook National Park in 1979. From there on, Mark has excelled and has conquered mountains such as Aoraki Mount Cook and Cho Oyu, his favourite of the Himalayan peaks.

On an expedition in 1982 to summit Aoraki, Mt Cook, he became trapped due to severe weather. Mark and good friend and climbing partner Phil, survived inside a tiny ice cave for 13.5 days with just 5 shrewsberry biscuits between them. His weight plummeted from 70kg to just 39kg during this time. Also, unfortunately, Mark and Phil both got bad frostbite in both their legs and Mark had to have his both removed just below his knees. 

This did not dampen his love of mountaineering and in 2006 he became the first double amputee to climb the tallest mountain in the world, Mount Everest! What an achievement!

I think that Mark's speech was very inspiring and that he has taught all of us a very good lesson to never give up and that life is about attitude – always see it as a win. As Mark said - at least he will never get frostbite again or break a leg skiing!

As we are Celebrating Change at school, I think that we can all take something away from Mark’s speech and make ourselves change for the better. Let's try hard, have faith in ourselves and challenge the normal.

“Don’t be the equal of it – be greater than it” - Mark Ingles

By Toby