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Dyed-in-the-wool dairy farmer John Gluckman, 57, of Matakana, has an amazing number of unusual achievements to his name. He is believed to be the first man to have climbed all seven of the world’s highest summits and run marathons on all seven continents. He has invented a tool for increasing hip mobility for skiers and has tried the zero gravity experience. From warding off bandits on Mount Kilimanjaro to treading on thin ice in Norway, his life so far has been full of adventure …
My parents were English and we arrived in Auckland when I was 10 months old. Although I was raised in the city, I always liked the outdoors. I enjoyed school and was average at sport – not particularly competitive but keen to be active outside. We had a bach at Piha and I loved to escape into the bush and swim at the beach. A pivotal moment in my life was when a director of Outward Bound came to Auckland Grammar School and showed a movie about the Outward Bound course. I knew right away that that was what I wanted to do. I loved the course – it gave me some goals in life.
After completing a Bachelor’s degree in science, I went overseas and picked up a variety of jobs including farm labourer. I loved the hard physical work and enjoyed being around the animals, and I never did end up using my degree. It was during this period the craziest event of my life occurred. In 1981, at age 30, I answered an advertisement to work on a farm in northern Norway. I arrived in late Spring and the farmer asked me to help him recover his dinghy, which was moored in the iced-over sea. We had to dig steps down to the boat and the plan was to drag the boat over the sea ice to open water, 1.5 kilometres away. The farmer assured me he’d done this before. Within 300 metres of the open sea, we went through the ice and I was up to my neck in freezing sea water. We managed to climb back on the ice and into the dinghy. I decided to throw the anchor ahead of us so it wedged in the ice and we pulled ourselves along until we reached the sea. We had to row about four kilometres into a 10 knot headwind to make it back to the farm.
During my seven years overseas I did a few small climbs then returned to New Zealand where I bought the farm on Sharp Rd, Matakana. I have a sharemilker now who runs 250 Friesians there. Although I did a two week mountaineering course on Mt Cook around this time, it wasn’t until 1990, when I read an advertisement in a climbing magazine about an expedition which included climbing Vinson Massif, Antarctica’s highest mountain, that I conquered my first highest continental peak. I succeeded in reaching the summit and not long after, I met New Zealand mountaineers Rob Hall and Gary Ball. Sadly, both these climbers have since died. They invited me on an expedition to climb Mt Everest. At this stage I’d had only 62 days of ice climbing in my life – a few peaks in New Zealand, including Mt Cook. People said my rock climbing skills were better than my ice climbing skills, but I’m not an outstanding climber. I’d say my skills are moderately good across a wide range, from rock climbing to ice climbing and skiing, without any serious weaknesses which can destroy climbers. We reached the top of Everest in May 1993 – the hardest climb I have ever done.
I still hadn’t decided to do the seven summits – in fact I decided shortly after Mt Everest to quit while I was still in one piece. However, in 1996 I learned about an expedition to climb Mt McKinley, in North America. I reached the summit in June that year and that’s when I decided to do the rest of the seven peaks. It took two attempts to conqueror Aconcagua in Argentina and in 1998 I climbed Mt Gunnbjorns, in Greenland, the highest peak in the Arctic. Kosciuszko, in Australia, and Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania, were next in 1999 and in February, 2000, I climbed Elbrus in Russia, completing the seven summits. I was then only the second person to have climbed the highest peaks in both the Arctic and Antarctic.
I’m a focussed climber but safety has always been my priority. I’ve still got my all my fingers and toes, and at no time did I intend to do anything to jeopardise them. My second priority is enjoyment and meeting people. Success was only ever my third priority. There have been numerous times when I have turned back when things got too dangerous. An epic is a good thing to talk about, but who wants to live through one? Those who go up mountains to prove something, climbing out of a sense of inferiority, don’t usually live long. The motivation to climb must be internal. I enjoyed the daily challenge just as much as reaching a summit. When I failed to get to the top, I still had a good trip. A key is having the ability to handle failure as well as success. I climbed Everest at the age of 42. If such expeditions had been around when I was 22 I might have tried it. I would have been fitter but I wouldn’t have had the common sense to get up there and down again in one piece.
While doing the Kilimanjaro ascent in 1999, I had another unusual experience. Our camp at 3500 metres altitude was raided by bandits who stole some of our boots, slashing our tents with knives in the process. Luckily, our porters outnumbered them and recovered our property.
I also ran seven marathons on seven continents from 1997 to 2004. Two of the marathons, at Mt Everest and in Antarctica, are the most difficult courses in the world. In 2003, I discovered I had prostate cancer and had a successful operation. The key to my rehabilitation was to treat it like a mountain – a goal to overcome and get back to normal life. I enjoy adventures and my latest one was a zero gravity experience in Las Vegas in March this year. I would love to go into space, but that may just be a dream. I’m keen on skiing and I have invented a machine on which you swivel to exercise your hips for skiing. I’m also a keen chess player when I can find a partner. I played for about eight years with Mayor Penny Webster’s father. He was a great player. He beat me in the last game we played, three weeks before he died. He was 95. I’m content with my life and what I’ve achieved, but I don’t think I’m finished with adventures. Something more will turn up. I don’t find adventures – they find me.
