It was hailed as one of the greatest Mt Everest climbs and considered the mountaineering coup of the century and this weekend visitors to a Katoomba-based festival will have the chance to hear all about it from one of the men who stood at the top of the world.
Thirty years ago this month, the first team of Australians conquered the world's highest peak. On October 3, 1984, Tim Macartney-Snape stood with Greg Mortimer to be the first Australians on the 8848-metre summit.
The late Lincoln Hall of Wentworth Falls had also been part of that expedition and this week another Mountains link will occur when Macartney-Snape speaks at the Australian Climbing Festival in Katoomba about that incredible "intense time shared in the mountains".
The plan to make that extraordinary conquest of Mt Everest was hatched on campus at Canberra's Australian National University in the late 1970s with an expedition to the Himalayas in 1978 laying the foundation for the big assault years later.
"I was in Nepal climbing a mountain south of Everest," Macartney-Snape said. "I was looking up at Everest thinking sooner or later an Australian is going to climb it."
It was described by Mt Everest historian Walt Unsworth as "one of the greatest climbs ever done on the mountain".
The reaction of veteran climber John Roskelley, considered America's most experienced high-altitude mountaineer, was noted after witnessing the ascent.
"We thought, 'No way are they going to make the summit; they'll back off'. But they didn't. "They climbed right on into the night and summited and then started down. The Aussies pulled off the mountaineering coup of the century," he said.
The Australian team had gained permission from the Chinese government to scale the north face. The climb had never been attempted and they went without high altitude porters or oxygen.
"I thought wouldn't it be really neat for a group of people from the world's flattest continent to actually climb a new route," Mr Macartney-Snape said. "We were lucky that we managed to do it."
He had to finish the climb in cross-country ski boots after his climbing boots were lost in an avalanche.
ANU Mountaineering Club president Clare Paynter said it was a phenomenal feat of skill and physical prowess.
"It was going back to a really traditional alpine style - no oxygen was used," she said. "That takes a lot of skill ... and we don't have the huge mountains that you can train on."
She said both club members on the expedition, Macartney-Snape and Hall, represented the pinnacle of what was possible.
For the 30th anniversary, Macartney-Snape is embarking on a national speaking tour to raise money for schools in Nepal.
"If you travel in the Himalaya you can't help but be impressed by the local people and the hardship that they put up with. The lack of opportunity is stark compared to what we enjoy so it's natural to want to do something to help them achieve their potential by helping to improve their level of education," he said.
He will speak this Friday (October 17) at 7pm and said he was delighted to see the Mountains-based climbing festival return after a long hiatus.
The Australian Climbing Festival runs from October 17-19 at the Katoomba Convention Centre, across the road from Scenic World. Tickets at http://australianclimbingfestival.com.au.