Tim Macartney-Snape
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Tim Macartney-Snape is a world renowned mountain climber and adventurer. On October 3rd 1984 Macartney-Snape and Greg Mortimer were the first Australians to reach the summit of Mount Everest. They reached the summit, without oxygen, via a new route on the North Face (North Face to Norton Couloir). In 1990, Macartney-Snape became the first person to walk and climb from Sea Level to the top of Mount Everest which he writes about in his book Everest: From Sea to Summit.
Tim Macartney-Snape was born on 5 January 1956 in Tanganikya (now Tanzania) where he lived on a farm with his British father and Irish mother. In 1967, the family moved to Australia, to a farm in north eastern Victoria. After attending Geelong Grammar School, Tim studied at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra where he joined the ANU Mountaineering Club (ANUMC) and obtained a BSc in between bushwalking, rock climbing and nordic skiing trips.
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[edit] Mountaineering
In 1978, Tim travelled to India as part of the ANUMC's expedition to Dunagiri (7,066 m). After prolonged bad weather and several team members fell ill, the leader decided to abandon the expedition. Tim and Lincoln Hall volunteered to climb up to retrieve equipment and ropes that had been left in place for a summit attempt. But Tim was also thinking of making a dash for the summit if the weather cleared. They were in luck and reached the summit but then spent a night in the open without sleeping bags and were fortunate to survive a blizzard on their descent.
In 1983, Macartney-Snape participated in an expedition to Annapurna II (7,937 m) successfully reaching the summit. The descent was delayed by a blizzard and the expedition ran out of food during the last five days. They were reported missing and when the expedition eventually returned they received significant publicity.
The publicity from the Annapurna II expedition helped attract sponsorship from Channel 9 for the next expedition which was to climb Mt Everest from the northern side. On 3 October 1984, Macartney-Snape became the first Australian to climb Mt Everest, an achievement for which he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM).
Later in 1984, Macartney-Snape accompanied Dick Smith on a trek in Nepal. Smith was the founder of the Australian Geographic Society and in 1988 he agreed that the society would sponsor an expedition to trek from the Bay of Bengal to the peak of Mt Everest. This became known as the Sea to Summit Expedition and was the first time anyone had walked from sea level and reached the top of Mt Everest. The summit was reached on 11 May 1990 where Macartney-Snape placed the flag of the Australian Geographic Society, his sponsor, and that of the Foundation for Humanity's Adulthood.[1]
[edit] Association with Jeremy Griffith
In 1987 the Australian Geographic Society arranged a function at which Macartney-Snape make a speech. Jeremy Griffith, a neighbour of Dick Smith and founder of the Foundation for Humanity's Adulthood, attended the function and met with Macartney-Snape after the speech. Several months later they met again at the home of Dick Smith where Griffith discussed his ideas with Macartney-Snape and gave him a draft copy of his first book Free: The End of the Human Condition. Macartney-Snape said that the explanation given in the book for human nature "made total sense".
Macartney-Snape became heavily involved with the FHA and Griffith's ideas. He suggested that there were better ways to express the foundation's ideas and urged Griffith to publish these ideas in a condensed form. Griffith subsequently published Beyond the Human Condition in 1991 and featured a foreword written by Macartney-Snape.
Macartney-Snape, as a director of the Foundation for Humanity's Adulthood, promoted the book by writing to a number of eminent scientist and asking for "help in stimulating debate about the hypothesis in Beyond The Human Condition". Macartney-Snape also promoted the book and the foundation during lectures and talks at school speech nights.
A further book by Griffith, A Species in Denial (2003), featured an essay by Macartney-Snape which described the foundation and its membership. The book includes a statement that the work of the foundation is too important for members to marry or have children. During his defamation case Macartney-Snape initially denied that foundation members had chosen not to marry or have children, but after being reminded of the book passage he admitted "That’s correct for most of us, that’s correct.”[1]
[edit] Defamation Case
The broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation of a Four Corners television programme "The Prophet of Oz" on 24 April 1995 triggered a series of events leading to the defamation case of Griffith & Macartney-Snape v Australian Broadcasting Corporation [2008] NSWSC 764. The key parts of the case for Macartney-Snape were the two imputations against him:
- 6(a) Tim Macartney-Snape deceives schools who invite him to talk to students about climbing Mt Everest by exploiting the occasion to promote Jeremy Griffith and his teachings.
- 6(b) Tim Macartney-Snape abuses his position of influence, derived from his reputation as a mountaineer, to recruit students at schools for Jeremy Griffith.
For the first imputation, judge Kirby ruled that "there was no deception" and although Macartney-Snape used the occasion of speaking at schools to promote Jeremy Griffith and his teachings, "he did not exploit the occasion in any inappropriate way".
For the second imputation, judge Kirby's discussed Macartney-Snape's testimony where Macartney-Snape was reluctant to use the word "recruit" to describe his activity of "introducing" school children to the ideas of Griffith. Kirby accepted the plaintiff's view that the activity was not recruiting, stating "[I do not] believe that planting an idea that may or may not germinate amounts to recruiting. Recruiting, to my mind, suggests something much more active and direct, in terms of securing new members".
As a result, Macartney-Snape won the case and was awarded $448,500 in damages. The other plaintiff, Jeremy Griffith lost his case.[1]
[edit] Awards
- Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) (1987). For achievement in mountaineering.
- Member in the Order of Australia (AM) (1993). For service to mountaineering and to international relations.
- Bent Spoon Award (1995). Awarded by the Australian Skeptics for his promotion of Jeremy Griffith's Foundation for Humanity's Adulthood[2].
- Australian Sports Medal (2000). For Service To Mountaineering. [3]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c "Griffith & Macartney-Snape v Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2008) NSWSC 764". New South Wales Supreme Court. Retrieved on 2008-08-26.
- ^ Archive of winners list
- ^ "Search Australian Honours". Australian Government. Retrieved on 2008-08-26.
