Thirty years ago on Friday the first team of Australians conquered the world's highest peak.

Only two of the five who set out on the expedition made it. One of those was an Australian National University student, Tim Macartney-Snape.

On campus in the late 1970s the ANU science student, and member of the ANU Mountaineering Club, hatched plans that would lead to an extraordinary conquest of Mt Everest.

"I started climbing up in the Brindabellas so the expedition definitely had its genesis in Canberra," Macartney-Snape said.

The first of several expeditions to the Himalayas took place in 1978. These trips would lay 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."

On October 3, 1984, he stood with Greg Mortimer to be the first Australians on the 8848-metre summit.

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," he said. "They climbed right on into the night and summited and then started down…  The Aussies pulled off the mountaineering coup of the century."

The Australian team had gained permission from the Chinese government to scale the north face. They chose a climb that had never been attempted and without high altitude porters.

"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. "That meant there would be an Australian route on Everest, which would really be a notable thing.

"I thought it would only be worth doing if we climbed it in style and that meant attempting a new route and without oxygen. 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.

Three decades later the achievement still ranks among the greatest of all in Australian mountaineering.

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 - and it was basically as traditional and as back to the roots as you could get," she said. "That takes a lot of skill to get to that level and we don't have the huge mountains that you can train on.

"It demonstrates a mentality. To have that level of mental strength is something else."

She said both club members on the expedition, Mr Macartney and the late Lincoln Hall of Canberra, represented the pinnacle of what was possible.

Queanbeyan's Geoff Bartram, also in the five-man expedition team, was forced to turn back at about 7500 metres due to headaches.

For the 30^th anniversary of Mr Macartney-Snape is embarking on a national speaking tour about the expedition to raise money for schools in Nepal.

He will be speaking at the ANU, in The Tank, on Wednesday, October 15.

Tickets can be bought through World Expeditions at: http://www.worldexpeditions.com/au/index.php?section=adventure_news&id=2211131