Everest East Side with Stephen Venables

About

George Mallory had a look at Everest's East Face in 1921 and commented famously, 'others, less wise, might attempt this way if they would; but emphatically it was not for us.'

Six decades passed before a huge lavishly equipped team finally found a way up the immense rock buttresses and gigantic ice cliffs of this 3,500 metres wall, known as the Kangshung Face. Five years later another team arrived: just four climbers, working alone without high altitude porters, to forge a second route up the wall. The climbing was spectacular, there were some near misses with avalanches and on the final summit bid the team chose to go without supplementary oxygen. Stephen Venables reached the summit alone, the first Briton to do so without oxygen, and on the descent spent a night in the open at 8,600 metres – the highest solo bivouac ever survived at that time.

Perhaps George Mallory had a point, but Stephen and his American team mates were well aware of the risks they took. They also had a lot of fun and fulfilment on the adventure of a lifetime. Reinhold Messner, who knows a bit about these things, described the ascent as 'the most adventurous in Everest's climbing history'.

Stephen, just back from Antarctica, will recount that special chapter in the Everest story. But as well as describing his own ascent, he will touch on the very first expedition of all – the 1921 Reconnaissance, when the first ever Europeans visited Tibet's incomparably beautiful Kama Valley, on the east side of Everest, and set eyes on the terrifying Kangshung Face.

£18 Full, £15 Conc
2 hours (20 min interval)

Image credits: EMILY NICHOLL