Shishapangma 
Mountaineer Andrew Lock has been honored by the Australian Geographic Society as the 2009 Australian Adventurer of the Year.
On Friday 2 October 2009 Lock stood on the summit of Tibet’s Mt Shishapangma making him just the 18th person in the world to climb all the Earth’s 8000+ meter peaks and the first Australian to ever join this exclusive group of mountaineering’s super elite. It puts Lock in a group almost as exclusive as the 12 men to ever stand on the surface of the moon. Yet this awesome moment of Australian achievement has so far been at risk of passing practically unnoticed by mainstream media and, as a result, the public at large.
Amongst daily news of socially troubled footballers being traded left right and centre and Lindsay Lohan’s latest indiscretion it’s a wonder why this genuinely hard won achievement could rate such little public attention. Even our Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who apparently has enough time on his hands to twitter and flickr his eating of a biscuit hasn’t yet taken a moment to publicly congratulate this true Australian achiever. We can only wait in hope. In my opinion the Australian Geographic Society’s award couldn’t come at a better time and hopefully it goes some way towards promoting Lock’s hard work.
Andrew Lock is, at this moment, making final preparations to summit Tibet’s Shishapangma. It’s the 14th and final step of his quest to become the first Australian to climb all 14 of the worlds 8000 meter plus peaks - also know to climbers as ‘Eight Thousanders’. 
