A split second changed everything
Grand Bend resident Denis Shackel lives in Oakwood Park with his wife, photographer Mary Lynn Fluter, and their home is among eight locations on the Grand Bend and Area Horticultural Society's Home and Garden Tour, which takes place Saturday.
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Grand Bend resident Denis Shackel lives in Oakwood Park with his wife, photographer Mary Lynn Fluter, and their home is among eight locations on the Grand Bend and Area Horticultural Society’s Home and Garden Tour, which takes place Saturday. A New Zealander by birth, Shackel grew up enjoying the outdoors, staying active as a long-distance runner, playing soccer and field hockey (he represented the New Zealand national team), and mountain climbing. After working as an elementary teacher for six years, Shackel came to Canada in 1969 to do his Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Toronto. He stayed and worked at the U of T’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education for 29 years before leaving to work as a management communications professor at the University of Western Ontario’s Ivey business school. His move to London – and eventually Grand Bend – was triggered by a fateful day in May 1997, when he and his brother-in-law Bruce climbed New Zealand’s Mount Ruapehu. As told to Casey Lessard I have only one sister, Kathleen, and I’m really close with her. My brother-in-law and I had talked for years about climbing Mount Cook, which is not only the largest mountain in New Zealand, but it happens to be the name of the school where I first taught; its Maori name is Aorangi. Every morning I would go into class, and here was this magnificent black and white photograph by the door, so I always wanted to climb it. Sir Edmund Hillary – the first man to summit Mount Everest – did all his training on Mount Cook. Bruce wrote me a letter and persuaded me that it was probably irresponsible to do it because we were both fathers and husbands, and because lots of people had been killed on Mount Cook. He persuaded me to give up that dream and suggested we climb Mount Ruapehu instead. He said, “I’ve not only climbed Mt. Ruapehu ten times, but I’ve taken my daughter over it. I’ll be your leader, I’ll be your coach.” It was something we planned and looked forward to. May 17, 1997 Kathleen, Bruce and I camped the night before, and Bruce and I started climbing at 4 a.m., before daybreak. Kathleen was to drive the camper van to the other side to pick us up at 5 p.m. Bruce and I headed off (without ropes connecting each other), and by the time we got to snow at about 3,000’, Bruce says to me, “Okay bro, you have to prove that you can pass the test before I take you any further.” He had arranged with Kathleen that she would stay at the campsite until 10 a.m. because he wanted to be sure I could hold onto the ice axe in a particular way, and I had to demonstrate that I could remember how to stop myself if I fell. He confessed to me that he didn’t think I was going to pass the test and he didn’t want Kathleen to have headed to the other side of the mountain, leaving us without a way home. The old man passed the test, and we continued on. At this point, I’m pretty happy; he’s a bit surprised and we were joking about it. We went past an old deserted ski slope and beautiful ice fields that weren’t that difficult to negotiate. From 3,000’, we had a fantastic view of the majesty of the surrounding peaks. We could see Mount Egmont, which is 200 miles away. The clarity of the bright blue sky – it was cloudless at that stage – was spectacular. We were increasingly excited to be in one another’s company, and he was giving me a hard time for not being as fit as he was. We were enjoying the view and the scenery. It was still morning when we got up to about 8,000’, and we could see the peak and where we had to go to reach it. Just out of interest, he pointed out a hut anchored into the mountain, fairly close to the peak. At that stage I didn’t think too much about it. The glacier was a bit steep at this point – about 45º – and it was going to take a little care to ensure that we got there. He said, “Look. Watch me and I’ll show you how to negotiate that.” He had instructed me how to de-ice a rock