Last night, my friend Amy and I went to the Explorer's Club film festival in NYC. The film that was showcased was "The Conquest of Everest" from 1953 and the festival's honored guest, Norman Dyhrenfurth, introduced the film and had a brief discussion about his personal experiences on the 1952 Swiss Everest expedition, and his own three-year struggle in planning the American Mount Everest Expedition (AMEE) in 1963 which resulted in the first American summit.
It was a really informative and entertaining night, and at the end of the evening, Amy and I surprisingly found ourselves sitting alone with Mr Dyhrenfurth (we now call him "Norman") settled in comfortable chairs next to the globe that Thor Heyerdahl used to plan his Kon-Tiki expedition, asking Norman questions about his mountaineering and films, and being entertained by his hilarious stories of skiing on his honeymoon. Bwahaha!!
It was a rather surreal evening, now that I think about it. (We ended up sitting with Norman after he got lost looking for the men's room.) However, at the time, Amy and I just thought we were having a blast.
I've added a photo to the gallery of us with our new buddy Norman, and one of Amy and her other new friend.
Just a note...Norman is 90 years old. I had to look it up today because he looked and acted about 75--and a robust 75 at that. If that is how you age when you climb mountains, by golly, I need to get some crampons.
Comments