Mervyn Prior on top of the world at 85 years old!
This week Mervyn Prior, a retired mountaineer living in the Crags, dusted off his hiking boots and along with family and friends set off to conquer the mighty Formosa Peak (1,750meters high) to celebrate his 85th birthday!
The party camped overnight at the foot of Formosa Peak and there was much laughter and bawdy singing around the camp fire as Mervyn remembered the old mountaineering ballades of his youth: “Sylvest!’ and ‘the bold mountaineer’ and ‘the wondrous crocodile’ as some of you may remember?
But next morning the climbing started in earnest. The day dawned magnificent with Formosa glowing in the early light and fields of Leucodendrons in full golden yellow bloom out to encourage the small climbing party.
The route up Formosa initially winds its way gently along a lake, then starts to climb steeper and gets ever steeper as the world drops away beneath your feet.
And, after what seems like forever, suddenly you can see over the other side, and you are an eagle looking down on a tiny miniature world. In the far, far distance is Robberg and Plett and home! And all around are whistling craggy peaks. The wind picks up and buffers you from side to side on every step adding to the eerie feeling of being so high up, alone and reliant on ones own feeble resources!
Then on one climbs up to the top of the first ridge, where the dreaded knife edge and gully come into view.
The ‘knife edge’ is a ridge that stretches between the two peaks and is quite breathtaking. Sheer drops of what feels like thousands of meters on either side of a small ridge of rock, a meter across, and 20 meters in length, is suspended in space between the first and second peak. To get to the gully which leads to the summit, one has to cross this hairy little ledge! One slip! And oops! A bungy jump without the happy ending! The imagination runs riot! And the howling wind doesn’t help to ease the anxiety! I was all for going on all fours with bums in the air to get across, but that did not suite the dignity of the octogenarian Merv, who, with walking sticks flying, gaily balanced his way across the rocks! Perhaps not being able to see out of one eye has its advantages!!
After the knife edge, the gully is the next challenge. Loose, gritty and very exposed. Merv let out his characteristic ‘Ho! Ho! Ho!’ laugh which is a sure sign that things are getting tricky and he is starting to have fun! But he soon had his faithful knotted rope tied to a ‘friend’ in a crevasse and we all pulled our way through safely.
The long slow slog to the top was a piece of cake after that!
We signed our names in the ‘visitors’ book and looked long and hard to see if any other 85 year old had recently summitted the peak, but no…none had,…so, I think this is a Guinness Book of Records all time first!
Mervyn Prior is the first 85 year old to summit Formosa Peak!
Written by Jane Luck. Photos thanks to Dave Collett
PS: Mervyn started climbing in 1947. At the age of 20, he hitch-hiked alone through Africa, and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya. He joined the Mountain Club of South Africa in 1950 (initially, he was refused entry because he sang rather bawdy songs!). Most of his climbing was done in the Transvaal and especially the Magaliesberg, where he opened many climbs. He was a member of the South African teams that made the first ascents of the East Face of the Central Tower of Paine (Chile) and Jugal Peak (Himalayas). Other adventures included climbs in the Andes (Huyanapotsi and Condoriri), Khirgistan (Peak Lenin),Peru,Britain and Europe.