Meet the 222nd Australian to climb Mount Everest - he's from Dubbo

At Hillary Step, just a couple of hours from the summit, he slipped.

"If I wasn't connected I wouldn't be here anymore," Lieutenant Commander Dover said.

But despite the reminder - as he calls it - about how dangerous the climb can be, on May 17, 2023 Lieutenant Commander Dover from Dubbo became the 222^nd Australian to have reached the summit of Everest.

It was 2017 when the helicopter-pilot instructor from 723 Squadron - Joint Helicopter School decided he was going to climb Mount Everest.

While he was more of a surfer than a hiker, Lieutenant Commander Dover said it was during a trip to Nepal with his wife that he started thinking about what it would take to get to the top.

He started with a mountaineering course in New Zealand - the closest mountains to Australia - and from there continued to scale different peaks around the world.

Having already done three iron mans, Lieutenant Commander Dover said he was looking for a challenge. He broke it done into each little step he needed to complete.

"I like to break things down and see if I can challenge myself to actually achieve it. I find once I start pushing in a direction with something, I'm like, 'well, I'm halfway there, I've started doing everything I might as well keep going'," he said.

Working in the navy has also helped shape his attitude towards challenges. For every failure, or every moment where something has gone wrong, Lieutenant Commander Dover said he has to work out how to bounce back and ensure it doesn't happen again.

The Everest climb itself was a two month expedition. Lieutenant Commander Dover only told his commanding officer and his wife about his plans to climb the highest mountain in the world.

As well as the six years of training he had already completed, the Everest expedition started with a 12 to 14 day walk to base camp and then climbing back down. There's a training peak - Ama Dablam, which Lieutenant Commander Dover said was a harder climb than Everest but one which no one cares about - followed by training through the ice falls and acclimatisation summits to camp two and three and back again.

Lieutenant Commander Dover said the push to the Everest summit itself was seven days.

"For it to be successful you need everything to go right and for it to be unsuccessful you need just one thing to go wrong," he said.

The day before another Australian man Jason Kennison had died trying to summit. Because there are so few Australians who attempt Everest, they tend to find each other. Lieutenant Commander Dover had hugged and high-fived Mr Kennison wishing him luck on the climb.

It takes five days to reach the summit and then climbers have to get down as quickly as possible. The longer they stay above 8000 feet, the more dangerous it becomes.

"That is euphoric, that moment when you come to the top and the prayer flags are there, there's a small Buddha that they've dragged up at some point. You're like 'I've done it'," Lieutenant Commander Dover said.

The four members of his team had 20 minutes at the top to take it in. For Lieutenant Commander Dover that included a call to his wife.

"People go 'oh is it amazing [at the summit]? Did you have this spiritual moment?' You don't, you're in pain 98 per cent of the time and people should know that."

Climbers are warned that after the euphoria, and feeling over the moon about what has been accomplished, relaxing on the way back down can be fatal.

Lieutenant Commander Dover described the decent as "chaotic".

One of the people he had climbed with had a stroke, two people - including Lieutenant Commander Dover - had their oxygen run out and there were people who simply didn't want to be there any more.

"The ice falls were melting quite a lot. As we're going down the ice seracs that were above us were hundreds of metres and thousands of tonnes of ice. If they fall then it's all over so we're going as quickly as we can," Lieutenant Commander Dover said.

He acknowledges it never would have been possible without the help from the Sherpas. While he was carry a pack that weighed between 10 and 15 kilograms, they were transporting 30 to 40 kilograms to help the climbers on their journey.

While the summit was a euphoric moment, the next best thing was seeing his wife.

"As we came out of the ice falls, she came into the ice falls about a kilometre or two away. I saw my wife, I saw our cook and the guide and I knew that we were out of it," Lieutenant Commander Dover said.

"I got to give her a hug and on the way back to camp, just to remind you that you're you're always at the whim of mother nature, a massive storm came through and for the last 15, 20 minutes walking back to camp we actually got covered in snow. I thought it was quite funny."

Getting back to base camp was a relief. Lieutenant Commander Dover said it was minus 10 degrees during the day, minus 25 degrees at night, and they were only staying in tents. At that point, he couldn't wait to return home.

"People often ask, you know, what was the point behind it? There's an old saying, 'why climb it? Well it's there to see if you can'," Lieutenant Commander Dover said.

"It was a personal challenge. I wasn't trying to break any records I just wanted to see if I could safety get up there and back in the time I did. So that's that's all I was trying to achieve."

Despite the near death experience, the pain, the cost - it's between $80,000 and $100,000 to climb Everest - and the harsh conditions, the Dubbo man is already planning his next climb. In 2025 he will take on K2 in Pakistan.

Lieutenant Commander Dover said it all came back to taking everything one step at a time.

"You can actually accomplish these things, but you've actually have to break them down and really analyse how you're going to do it. And then it becomes more like achievable because you're only focusing on that next little goal, not the almighty one in six years time," he said.

His advice for anyone considering climbing Mount Everest is simple.

"Go for it. Step out how you want to go about doing it, then start small," Lieutenant Commander Dover said.

"Don't take any shortcuts and enjoy the journey because while standing on the stop is really lovely, the best thing is all the friends I've made from the different mountains I've climbed."