Sir Graeme Dingle (born 30 November 1945) is a New Zealand outdoor adventurer and

mountaineer Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, an ...

, who founded the Graeme Dingle Foundation. He is also known for his writing and humanitarianism.Graeme Dingle
,

New Zealand Book Council Read NZ Te Pou Muramura (formerly the New Zealand Book Council) is a not-for-profit organisation that presents a wide range of programmes to promote books and reading in New Zealand. History It was established in 1972 as a response to UNESCO's ...

; accessed 20 June 2017.

Early life and family

Born in Gisborne on 30 November 1945 to Herbert and Ann Dingle, Graeme Dingle was educated at

Hutt Valley High School Hutt Valley High School is a State school, state coeducational secondary school located in central Lower Hutt, New Zealand. A total of students from Years 9 to 13 (ages 12 to 18) attend the school as of making the school one of the largest i ...

Mountaineering and adventure pursuits

In 1968, Dingle and Murray Jones were the first to climb all six major European north faces and the Bonati pillar, including

Eiger The Eiger () is a mountain of the Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends a ...

and Matterhorn, in one season. He has achieved over 200 mountaineering and adventure firsts worldwide, including first ascents of mountains and faces in the Himalayas, the Andes, and in New Zealand. Dingle made the first traverse of the Himalayas, a distance of some 5000 km, in 265 days. He has made a 28,000 km traverse of the Arctic, the first winter traverse of the Southern Alps taking 100 days, and the first transit of the

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The eastern route along the Arct ...

by snow machine. At the inaugural Coast to Coast race in 1983, Dingle was set to win the individual men's competition. Due to staggered starts, the English anesthetist Joe Sherriff would have to beat him by 2 minutes for an overall win, but out from the finish line, Dingle was still out of Sherriff's sight. However, Sherriff overtook him on this cycling leg riding in a strong bunch and clutched the overall win off him.

Charitable work

Dingle served as the chairman of the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre and The Project K Charitable Trust, and was the founding chairman of the New Zealand Outdoor Assembly. He is the co-founder of the Graeme Dingle Foundation https://dinglefoundation.org.nz/ along with his wife, Jo-anne Wilkinson, Lady Dingle https://www.linkedin.com/in/jwilkinsonnz/?originalSubdomain=nz

Honours and awards

Dingle's awards have included the Governor-General's Award for mountain rescue, and the U.S.

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

's Antarctic Service Award. He was named the 2011 Supreme Winner of the 2011 New Zealand Outdoor Excellence Awards.Outdoor Excellence Awards 2011 Honours Graeme Dingle
, Scoop.co.nz, 2 November 2011. Retrieved 7 January 2014 Dingle was appointed a

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

, for services to outdoor pursuits, in the 1988 Queen's Birthday Honours. In the

2001 New Year Honours The 2001 New Year Honours List is one of the annual New Year Honours, a part of the British honours system, where New Year's Day, 1 January, is marked in several Commonwealth countries by appointing new members of orders of chivalry and recipient ...

, he was appointed an

Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have rend ...

, for services to youth. He was promoted to Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the

2017 Queen's Birthday Honours The 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as pa ...

, again for services to youth.

Bibliography

*''Two Against the Alps'' (1972) *''Wall of Shadows'' (1976) *''The Seven Year Adventure'' (1981) *''The Outdoor World of Graeme Dingle'' (1983) *''First Across The Roof of The World'' (1982) *''New Zealand Adventures'' (1985) *''Chomolungma'' (1985) *''Outdoor Pursuits in New Zealand'' (1990) *''Dangerous Journeys'' (1995) *''Arktikos'' (1996) *''Dingle: Discovering the Sense in Adventure'' (2005)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dingle, Graeme Sportspeople from Gisborne, New Zealand New Zealand mountain climbers 1945 births Living people New Zealand Members of the Order of the British Empire Knights Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit People educated at Hutt Valley High School