Former South Barwon players hiked to Mt Everest Base Camp, reveals story of avalanche

Eight former South Barwon footballer reached Mt Everest’s base camp in October, but it wasn’t all smooth climbing.

Mitch Herbison, Josh McCann, Kent Agg, Tim Sherman, Scott McLean, Jarrod Westwood, Glen Wallace and James Garvey reached Mt Everest Base Camp wearing South Barwon colours. Picture: Contributed

SOUTH Barwon president Tim Sherman was one of eight former Swans to reach Mt Everest base camp in October.

Mitch Herbison, Josh McCann, Kent Agg, Scott McLean, Jarrod Westwood, Glen Wallace and James Garvey joined Sherman on the climb in Nepal, after multiple cancellations in the past three years.

Sherman said the group was “long overdue” for the climb.

“We had been talking about it for a couple of years, and we got to a point where we wanted to do something in our twilight years that we could have to look back on,” he said.

“It was a good way to reach out and reconnect with some former teammates, it’s not for everyone but it appealed to these guys and it went from there.

“We were booked to go in March 2020 but it got to about three days out when we had to pull the pin because of Covid, and we had to rebook a number of times, so it was good to actually get to go and get it done.

Mitch Herbison, Josh McCann, Kent Agg, Tim Sherman, Scott McLean, Jarrod Westwood, Glen Wallace and James Garvey reached Mt Everest Base Camp wearing South Barwon colours. Picture: Contributed

“Everyone was still motivated to go and get it done, our money was still sitting there with the airlines and the climbing company and we were pretty happy to keep it there because if we took it out we wouldn’t rebook.”

It was not all smooth climbing for the group, with a “massive” avalanche nearby during one of the days.

“It almost landed on our feet,” he said.

“We had done the walk to base camp earlier in the day, and later on we hiked up an adjoining mountain to get a sunset view over Everest, and as we were halfway up it sounded like a Boeing 747 overhead.

“There was a huge wall of snow that was falling down the mountain next to Everest and it wasn’t all that far from where we were three hours early.

“It was pretty amazing to see.”

Originally published as Former South Barwon players hiked to Mt Everest Base Camp, reveals story of avalanche