Up and About

Page 1

DOUG SCOTT

Born to a lower-middle-class family in Nottingham in 1941, Doug Scott began climbing in Derbyshire when he was thirteen and without any obvious plan in it was soon discovering the cliffs of Snowdonia, Scotland, the Alps and the Dolomites. He completed his first Alpine season at the age of eighteen. In 1965, aged twenty-three, he went on his first organised expedition, to the Tibesti Mountains of Chad. It was to be the first of many trips to the high mountains of the world. On 24 September 1975, he and his climbing partner Dougal Haston became the first Britons to reach the summit of Mount Everest and they became national heroes. In total, Scott has made forty-two expeditions to the high mountains of Asia, reaching the summits of forty peaks. With the exception of his ascent of Everest, he has made all his climbs in lightweight or alpine style and without the use of artificial oxygen. Scott was made a CBE in 1994. He is a former president of the Alpine Club, and in 1999 he received the Royal Geographical Society Patron’s Gold Medal. In 2011 he was awarded the Piolets d’Or Lifetime Achievement award, during the presentation of which his mountaineering style was described as ‘visionary’. In 1995 he founded Community Action Nepal (CAN), a UK-based registered charity which aims to help mountaineers support the mountain people of Nepal. Scott continues to climb, write and lecture, avidly supporting the work of CAN.

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As darkness fell, Scott and Haston scraped a small cave in the snow 100 metres below the summit and survived the highest bivouac ever – without bottled oxygen, sleeping bags and, as it turned out, frostbite. For Doug Scott, it was the fulfilment of a fortune-teller’s prophecy given to his mother: that her eldest son would be in danger in a high place with the whole world watching. Scott and Haston returned home national heroes with their image splashed across the front pages. Scott went on to become one of Britain’s greatest ever mountaineers, pioneering new climbs in the remotest corners of the globe. His career spans the golden age of British climbing from the 1960s boom in outdoor adventure to the new wave of lightweight alpinism throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In Up and About, the first volume of his autobiography, Scott tells his story from his birth in Nottingham during the darkest days of war to the summit of the world.

‘At its finest moments climbing allows me to step out of ordinary existence into something extraordinary, stripping me of my sense of self-importance.’

Surviving the unplanned bivouac without oxygen near the summit of Everest widened the range of what and how he would climb in the future. In fact, Scott established more climbs on the high mountains of the world after his ascent of Everest than before. Those climbs will be covered in the second volume of his life and times.

ISBN 9 7 8 1 9 1 0 2 4 0 4 1 0

9 7 81910 240410 > Front cover: Dougal Haston on the south summit of Everest, 1975. Photo: Doug Scott Author photo: Chris Bonington.

At dusk on 24 September 1975, Doug Scott and Dougal Haston became the first Britons to reach the summit of Everest as lead climbers on Chris Bonington’s epic expedition to the mountain’s immense south-west face.

Vertebrate Publishing, Sheffield www.v-publishing.co.uk

THE HARD ROAD TO EVEREST £24.00

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THE HARD ROAD TO EVEREST

DOUG SCOTT

Published by Vertebrate Publishing, Sheffield. www.v-publishing.co.uk

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THE HARD ROAD TO EVEREST

First published in 2015 by Vertebrate Publishing. Vertebrate Publishing Crescent House, 228 Psalter Lane, Sheffield  S11 8UT, UK. www.v-publishing.co.uk Copyright © Doug Scott 2015. Doug Scott has asserted his rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as author of this work. Cover photo: Dougal Haston on the south summit of Everest, 1975. Photo: Doug Scott. Photography by Doug Scott unless otherwise credited A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978-1-910240-41-0 (Hardback) ISBN: 978-1-910240-42-7 (Ebook) All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means – graphic, electronic, or mechanised, including photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems – without the written permission of the publisher. Every effort has been made to obtain the necessary permissions with reference to copyright material, both illustrative and quoted. We apologise for any omissions in this respect and will be pleased to make the appropriate acknowledgements in any future edition. Design and production by Nathan Ryder. Vertebrate Graphics Limited. www.v-graphics.co.uk Vertebrate Publishing is committed to printing on paper from sustainable sources.

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Printed and bound in the UK by T. J. International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall.

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CONTENTS

Preface ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� xi

THE 1ST AGE Ch.1 ..... WARCHILD � �������������������������������������������������������������������� 1 Ch.2 ..... THE CANAL ����������������������������������������������������������������� 19

THE 2ND AGE Ch.3 ..... EMPIRES ��������������������������������������������������������������������� 49 Ch.4 ..... HISTORY LESSONS ����������������������������������������������������� 67

THE 3RD AGE Ch.5 ..... JAN ����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 87 Ch.6 ..... ATLAS � ����������������������������������������������������������������������� 107 Ch.7 ..... DOLOMITES � �������������������������������������������������������������� 125 Ch.8 ..... TIBESTI ���������������������������������������������������������������������� 147 Ch.9 ..... HINDU KUSH � ������������������������������������������������������������� 165 Ch.10 ... STRONE � �������������������������������������������������������������������� 189

THE 4TH AGE

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Ch.11 .... A CHANGING WORLD ������������������������������������������������ Ch.12 .... YOSEMITE � ����������������������������������������������������������������� Ch.13 .... BAFFIN ���������������������������������������������������������������������� Ch.14 .... DON � �������������������������������������������������������������������������� Ch.15 .... EVEREST AGAIN �������������������������������������������������������� Ch.16 .... CHANGABANG � ���������������������������������������������������������� Ch.17 .... TRAGEDY IN THE PAMIRS ����������������������������������������� Ch.18 .... STRATEGY AND TACTICS ������������������������������������������ Ch.19 .... EVEREST REGAINED � �������������������������������������������������

217 231 249 277 297 319 331 349 363

Epilogue ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Acknowledgements ����������������������������������������������������������������� Bibliography ���������������������������������������������������������������������������� Index � ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������

385 391 392 394

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To Jan, Michael, Martha and Rosie.

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All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. As You Like It, William Shakespeare

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PREFACE

Here are a few observations about writing an autobiography starting with a chance remark I made to Dai Davidson, my local plumber, who had his head under the floorboards of my office as I passed by clutching a sheaf of papers. ‘You’re so lucky to be working with your hands, Dai.’ He withdrew his head and looked up at me for a second or two. ‘Are you telling me that I can’t do your job and anyone could do mine? You are working with your hands, it’s all the bloody same man.’ Dai’s reply gave me pause for thought. Writers often come across as a pretentious lot but I could see there wasn’t a huge difference between writers and tradesmen; both have to conceive what it is they want their hands to achieve. First the thought, then the action and the end result will depend on the clarity of that conception. A prerequisite seems to be intensity of experience – something that occurs regularly in the mountains. This reminded me of when I was avalanched on Mazeno Peak in Pakistan. Rattling down a 500-metre gully, with time suspended, I found myself observing everything I experienced, as though from a bubble. There was no fear, just a series of impressions: tumbling down over rock and ice cliffs, wondering at how resilient the human body is and that I was still alive, turning this way and that, my whole weight bouncing off my right ankle. There was no pain, but I noted the situation was serious. I was then in space, clearing a step, sliding with the snow but unaware of the speed of my descent; I had time to register it was like being up with Leo Dickinson in his hot air balloon, not aware of the wind because we were moving at the same speed. I bumped gradually to a halt, partially buried on the glacier below but able to clear the snow away from my face, release the waist belt on my rucksack and breathe more easily. There are other ways to have intense experiences. At an Edvard Munch art exhibition I was amazed to discover the lengths the artist would go to in order xi

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to generate creativity through denial and suffering. I was left wondering how valid it is to represent the manifestations of self-induced neuroses. I seemed to write best when I could forget myself, or at least go beyond myself, something I managed when I wrote stories for my children from the mountains, often about a character I called ‘Warlock’ – my alter ego, but a better version ruled by conscience. That, of course, was private stuff, like my diaries and letters written from the perilous mountains like a condemned man in his cell or a soldier sitting in the trenches. What writing might climbers do at Base Camp, to friends and family, if such words were only to be read when dead? To communicate all that was good about their shared lives and make honest confessions that would otherwise be too awkward to face: parents taken for granted, wife abandoned or kids neglected. If we were aware of our mortality, if we remembered all the time that we are going to die, then we would deal with a huge amount we put to one side and write about it more honestly. This autobiography is a good chance for me to sort it all out even if everything is not included. All I have to do now is overcome the disease of tomorrow and put pen to paper. The best antidote to that in the past has been naked ambition but at seventy-four that is starting to weaken. Hopefully, I will be able to keep the muse alive at the prospect of clearing more junk out of the way and creating more space for good things to happen. There is always the chance that others will find what I have to say of interest – I hope so. I began climbing when I was a schoolboy. It feels like someone else started me off; he then turned into quite another person before changing again. Now I feel a need to turn full circle, certainly as far as my understanding of climbing is concerned. Children have something to show us, something that becomes obscured with the passage of time; anyone who came to climbing an innocent and of his own volition might benefit from looking back to those early years. I wonder now at the spontaneous antics of my youth. It takes more than a cursory glance to see how it really was; only with a big effort am I right there, hands grazed and bloody from days on gritstone, my fingers smelling of lichen, my face wind-blasted and my limbs weary from storms on Kinder or cold, wet bivvies under boulders on Stanage with bacon and grit butties for breakfast and stews reeking of paraffin fumes for dinner, of singing in pubs and at the back of the bus back to Nottingham on Sunday nights. With these memories of smell, touch and taste of those distant times, like a film clip it starts to roll and I am right there, my memory sparked into life, seeing faces of who was there and a sense as well of who I was.

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I see in the past the clues of who I am now. That boy, who seemed like someone else, now seems like me again; I must just let these film clips run or I will get it all wrong. I must also admit I am lucky to have the carrot of this book to keep me at it through a million distractions. It is a real privilege to be paid to check myself out. I find I can’t recall anything of my first three years and neither can I pinpoint any specific reason that led me to climb in the first place, so whether or not it was fate that I should have this ‘rat’ in my gut, or whether it was my destiny to wander the world’s mountain ranges, I don’t know, but perhaps something will emerge from what follows – so look out for clues! Here is a warning to any young lad thinking of taking the mountain path: it’s very hard to get off – I’ve tried but I’m happily resigned to walk and climb until I die as things are right now. The rational among you may shiver: ‘My God, he’s got a death wish.’ My competitors might once have worried that I would be around forever, but now they can take satisfaction in my revelations of weakness. Admirers may feel let down – well, hard luck; my friends and kindred spirits will remain so, however close I get to the bone. What am I letting myself in for? At one time, in the beginning, I would jump in feet first and ask questions later. Now I’ve got the bad habit of preparing the ground ahead – meaning reducing the risks by knowing what’s coming. I’ve pulled a few books off my shelf to see what others have said, the book falling open at the apposite pages, as they do sometimes when you’re really going for it. I got this from Ascent in 1976, where Tom Higgins responded to David Roberts’ assertion that most autobiographies were somewhat banal and predictable. Tom found that Walter Bonatti at least could lift his spirits; I would like to do that, of course. On another shelf, another word of caution, this time from Alfred Richard Orage, socialist and editor of The New Age, about art as a means of power: ‘To express himself is not enough; he wishes to impress himself. Readers feel towards him the repulsion as well as the attraction of the snake for the bird. Power they instinctively feel is there, and they are afraid of it. Style is only the device adopted by great writers to make their power more attractive. Style is power made gracious; we must write as if Homer and Demosthenes were to be our judges, as if our lives depended upon this approval … All perfection is the fruit of sacrifice.’ That had me worried – immobilised and powerless for days. But I recall that I failed my English O level twice, so any style I have should be transparent at best and unlikely to pull the wool over any one’s eyes. I turned to Beelzebub’s

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Tales to His Grandson, opened it at once at the page in the chapter ‘The Arousing of Thought’, where George Gurdjieff gives his opinion of professional writers: ‘First of all, I am not young; I have already lived so much that I have been in my life, as it is said, “not only through the mill but through all the grindstones”; and secondly, I am in general not writing so as to make a career for myself, or so as to plant myself, as is said “firm-footedly”, thanks to this profession, which, I must add, in my opinion provides many openings to become a candidate d-i-r-e-c-t for “Hell” … knowing nothing whatsoever themselves, they write all kinds of “claptrap” and thereby automatically acquiring authority … ’ (Then again, Gurdjieff went out of his way to make his writings obscure. ‘I bury the bone so deep that the dogs have to scratch for it.’) Though I have grasped the point, I hesitate and consult the I Ching, throwing hexagram 63. After completion, ‘in principle, everything stands systematised, and it is only in regard to details that success is still to be achieved … everything proceeds as if of its own accord and this can too easily tempt us to relax and let things take their course without troubling over details. Symptoms of decay are bound to be the result; the need is for unremitting perseverance and caution.’ It is obviously no good just ‘spitting it out’; I am going to have to remind myself to write from the heart to express the facts. Are you impressed? If not, try this from Tolstoy which is more encouraging: ‘Art is a human activity having for its purpose the transmission to others of the highest and best feeling to which men have arisen.’ And where do these ‘highest and best feelings’ arise? According to people living on the edge of existence, like the Caribou shaman Igjugarjuk: ‘All true wisdom is only to be found far from the dwellings of men, in the great solitudes; and it can only be obtained through suffering. Suffering and privation are the only things that can open the mind of man to that which is hidden from his fellows.’ That must leave a familiar taste on the palate of anyone who has pushed themselves to the very limit on any weekend on our British hills or crags. As long as it was the limit, they will know what Igjugarjuk is talking about. They will have come back physically tired from their weekend’s exertions, but inwardly glowing, enough to see themselves through the next week at work. So, here I am, back at my desk, to live again the pain and pleasure, the heartache and happiness, though I doubt if you will be interested in all of it, and I wouldn’t have the courage to tell you all of it anyway. This memoir is important, according to my Buddhist friends. They tell me that everything I have done will be ‘up for review’ on passing out of this life into the next, when I will have to pay for my sins by living again the pain I inflicted on others. I understand

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that it’s a good idea to become aware of just how much my actions have affected others, not only to reduce the future shock but also to avoid thoughtless actions now: humility before senility, turning passion into compassion. Just as I have committed to fight the disease of tomorrow and get down to this review of my climbing I was called away yet again, to Tierra del Fuego, where I read Uttermost Part of the Earth by E. Lucas Bridges. It includes a very perceptive observation made by the sculptor and Arabist Rom Landau: ‘most of us cherish imaginary romantic notions about ourselves and only rarely succeed in breaking through the crust of self-deception … In books of an autobiographical background, an occasional word of self-criticism is usually outweighed by pages of self-praise, however cunningly disguised.’ Again, I hesitate, with this reminder to be honest, wondering if I am up to it, knowing the truth is relative to experience. Have I enough experience, for instance, to gauge the effect on those I write about? I know how I have been affected by what others have written about me in their autobiographies. I know there are many other climbing friends and acquaintances better equipped, far more honest than I, to write such a book about themselves – those of my friends who have passed on and never bothered, and those that live without much ego, living in the now, without the inclination to review their lives. And if they did, the tales they would tell would be as important and interesting as any of mine. They might well be told with better recall and more skill than I can muster. For all these reasons, and more, I hesitate to write about the fact that from an early age I never felt so vital, more alive or spontaneously joyous, as when off with the gang, out into the countryside, the quiet of the forest, watching wildlife by the canal or lake, going a little further each time, learning to pace the journey and to find the way back home. One thing led to another; there was never any obvious plan: the country round my home, the Peak District, the mountains of Snowdonia, Scotland, the Alps and the Himalaya, always a little further, no turning back, hooked on steeper ground and higher summits, to the highest place, Everest, and beyond. Beyond Everest? Yes, when I discovered there is more to be gained with less – fewer people, less equipment and less cost enabling more journeys, one after the other, twice a year or more, constantly prepared physiologically and psychologically for life in the thin cold air. I was driven to go where ‘no one had gone before’. I came to know, as Don Munday did, hunting down The Unknown Mountain, that ‘the joy of pioneering can be as transcendent as that of a composer of music is above one who is merely able to play it.’

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Part of it was sheer curiosity, to know the lie of the land between peaks I’d climbed, putting another piece of the jigsaw into place, just as the old surveyors recorded details within the triangle of their calculations. I gained this knowledge, both inner and outer, among the most dramatic and beautiful landscapes in the world helped along by local people so attuned to life in the high Himal and elsewhere. Over the years I came to make a strong connection with these people who helped me climb their mountains and eventually responded to their request for help in improving conditions of labour in the climbing industry and the health and education in their villages. This was a good move, since it guaranteed me a continuing presence in their magnificent mountains and helped me know more about them and the nature of things, as if waking up now and again from a deep sleep, if only for a moment, to glimpse the infinite beauty and wonder of what is normally hidden, as Shakespeare explained it: Are not these woods More free from peril than the envious court? Here feel we but the penalty of Adam, The seasons’ difference, as the icy fang And churlish chiding of the winter’s wind, Which, when it bites and blows upon my body, Even till I shrink from cold, I smile and say “This is no flattery: these are counsellors That feelingly persuade me what I am.” Sweet are the uses of adversity … And this our life exempt from public haunt Finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks, Sermons in stones and good in everything. I would not change it. As You Like It

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THE 1ST AGE At first, the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms. Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. As You Like It, William Shakespeare

If he awakens hungry in the night he signals with a soft grunt if he cannot find her breast; she will then give it to him and again his well-being will be re-established, without ever having come near to straining the limits of his continuum. His life, full of action, is consistent with the lives lived by millions of his predecessors and meets the expectations of his nature. The Continuum Concept, Jean Liedloff

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Douglas Keith Scott, aged just eighteen months in November 1942.

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WARCHILD

In about the seventh year the changing of the teeth indicate that the ‘life forces of the body have completed their first task – the building of a physical organism. The spiritual forces that have been brought from the prenatal forces are still strong … The child is mobile, spritely and unselfconscious.’ The Number Seven, A.E. Abbot

As a teenager my mother Joyce visited a fortune-teller who told her she would marry a man in uniform with shiny buttons and have three sons, the eldest of whom would be in trouble in a shelter, very high up – and that the whole world would be watching. Mum married a policeman, on 1 June 1940. I was born a year later, almost to the day. She had two more sons and many years later I survived a risky bivouac just below the summit of Everest. Thereafter Mum was much more relaxed when I went climbing. Later I discovered she’d been born at the same moment as Edmund Hillary. There may be something going on out there – a force propelling us down pre-determined lines, a hidden potential, much greater than outward appearances would suggest. Mum was born in a terraced house that opened on to Queen’s Grove, a cobbled street quite near to Nottingham’s Midland railway station in an area called The Meadows. Grandma Gregory would scrub the front steps to keep them spotless. The front door, with its polished brass knob, led directly into the front room, the best in the house, where only the doctor seemed to be invited. The rest of the world entered from the backyard where there was an outside lavatory and a galvanised bath hanging between the back door and a sash window. Not much light came into the back; the yard was below street level and a few feet away from the high wall of the neighbouring timber merchant. 1

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At the end of Queen’s Grove was the Grove Tavern. Every evening, and lunchtime on Sundays, Gran would walk across with a large white jug and bring it back frothing over with stout. Grandad sat by the fire, wheezing and coughing into a pot. He wasn’t a well man after years of smoking up to a hundred cigarettes a day, a habit he developed fighting in the Great War. Life in the trenches and years working as a coal miner and then in a slaughterhouse had left him with arthritis. Once a week, the bath was brought in and filled with kettles and pots of boiling water from off the kitchen range. A clothes horse was arranged around it with towels and blankets to give Grandad some privacy while he took his bath. With Grandad sick, Grandma did well to bring up three children on less than four pounds per week; there was very little state support. I remember visiting Gran and being treated to sugar butties, white bread and margarine with sugar sprinkled on. But despite the hardships, there was always something going on with my uncles Roy and Keith and all their friends milling about the house. Keith, seven years younger than Mum, was called up for National Service and he looked most dashing in his RAF uniform. Roy, always fit, swam and played water polo for Nottingham. My father George came from a sporting family; his great-grandfather had been secretary of Notts County FC and his dad won many sporting trophies. My grandfather had died in 1938 from a burst peptic ulcer. Grandma Scott had stayed on in their comfortable bungalow in Wollaton Park until a woman latched on to her, offering her companionship in her loneliness. Grandma Scott was gradually swindled of all her money and with nothing left to pay the rent ended up in complete penury in a condemned house on Arthur Terrace in Radford, not far from my school. As an older boy I used to cycle round once a week to visit. Dad was particularly annoyed Grandma had more or less given away the ‘family silver’ – sporting trophies that he and his dad and grandad had won playing football, cricket and athletics. I would sit with her on a chair at the kitchen table where she lit a candle since she rarely had enough money for the electric meter. She usually had a blanket over her shoulders; coal was rationed and too expensive to burn all the time. I did a few chores, bringing in coal, lighting the fire and checking to make sure the outside lavatory was in working order; then I would report back to Mum and Dad on the state of the house and Grandma’s complaints about the neighbours, who seemed to be prostitutes. Although Dad visited Gran regularly to carry out various plumbing repairs and once to put in a new fireplace, there always seemed to be quite a tension between Dad and his mother, although I could never work out why. Mum seemed to write Gran off as being simpleminded for letting herself be used and brought down in the world. Gran was, however, kind to my brother and me 2

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WARCHILD

Doting parents in the back garden of 174 Charlbury Road in June 1941. The railway embankment and Dad’s bean poles in the background.

when she was asked to look after us if Mum went off to town or when Mum and Dad had a night out on holiday. Dad was educated at Lenton Secondary School and when he left as head boy was awarded the ‘Albert Ball Prize’, in honour of the handsome flying ace born and raised in Lenton. For his first job Dad was apprenticed to a motor mechanic. He also joined the Denman Street Lads’ Club where he started boxing, something he quickly mastered. On the strength of his boxing ability, Dad joined the Nottingham City Police Force even though he was half an inch below the required six feet in height. With encouragement from its famous chief constable Captain Athelstan Popkess, the Nottingham City Police boxing team became internationally famous. In 1938, after knocking out the German champion in Stuttgart, Dad became European police light-heavyweight boxing champion. ‘We have nothing to fear from Hitler with men like George Scott in our midst,’ was how one newspaper recorded it. There are plenty of tales of Dad as a bobby on the beat armed only with his truncheon, whistle and boxing skills. The latter came in useful breaking up a fracas with his friend and fellow boxer, PC Jerry Beaves, at a notorious pub on Denman Street. Bottles and chairs were flying around the room, but a few well-directed straight-arm jabs laid some brawlers out while the rest rushed for the door. After that the pub became quite respectable – or so the story goes. Another time, a dray horse bolted down Friar Gate towards a busy road junction. Dad ran alongside and pulled the horse’s head down by its reins. 3

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He received a police commendation for his quick thinking and was later promoted to sergeant, but never could pass his inspector’s exams. Mum had us all creeping round like mice while he studied for them. So I was born the son of a boxing champion, on 29 May 1941, having been conceived during the Battle of Britain at the start of a war whose outcome was wholly uncertain. For my parents and the city of Nottingham it was a life-anddeath struggle to preserve democracy and civilisation, yet my childhood seemed entirely normal. We lived on the edge of town in a semi-detached house on a cul-de-sac still lit with gas lamps at night, sandwiched between a railway embankment and a disused canal leading west out of the city. At the end of the road were miles of green fields to roam in and woods in which to make dens and climb trees for hours after school and on fine weekends. Beyond the woods were ponds and scrublands and gangs of youths from other communities who either became instant friends or with whom we fought running battles. There was Wollaton Pit with its slag heaps and workings to explore. Five miles away was the Hemlock Stone, thirty feet high and said to have been thrown by a goblin inhabiting Helsby Crag in Cheshire at his enemy on Nottingham Castle Rock. The stone had fallen short but it provided us with a good objective for long hikes. Dad had an allotment in farmer Frank Earp’s field only a short walk from our house. It got a direct hit during a bombing raid on 16 November 1940 and became a bomb crater, another casualty of war. In the same raid a bomb landed in the canal pond and though it failed to explode, the impact still sent pike and other fish over houses and on to the road and field. My mother must have found all this quite harrowing, carrying me in her womb without her mother or mother-in-law to help, wondering if she would be a victim of the next air raid. We shared an Anderson shelter of galvanised corrugated steel with next door. The inside was painted white and clay heaped on the outside. It was soon covered with grass and a cascade of aubrietia. The wailing of sirens had everyone along our road scurrying off, down into their shelters, except for the night of Good Friday 1941, at the bend in the road, when a woman called Maude Tomlinson was caught out and killed as a bomb destroyed her house just a few weeks before I was born. Altogether four houses were rebuilt and were always known as the ‘bombed buildings’. The worst raid was on the night of 8 to 9 May, when a hundred German aircraft attacked Nottingham, dropping 500 high-explosive bombs and thousands of incendiaries. Bastards! Our road escaped this time but there was terrible carnage in town where the Co-op bakery was hit and forty-nine people killed in the Co-op shelter. The situation at that time was dire. Although the Battle of Britain had been won and the British Empire still covered a quarter of the globe, Britain felt very much alone. The possibility of defeat 4

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was in most people’s minds since every time British armed forces met the Germans they got pushed back on land and sea. After the loss of Crete to a smaller German force, it seemed the Germans were unbeatable. A month after I was born the nation’s situation improved. Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union, and in December the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour, bringing America into the war. Later I asked my parents whether in those dark days of 1940 and 1941 they expected Britain would be defeated. They both said they had every confidence Mr Churchill would pull them through and were quite disgusted when, after the war, he was not re-elected. Mum boasted I was a strong baby with powerful lungs, able to rock the crib across the bare boards of the bedroom floor from one wall to the other as I screamed for attention between feeds. She said the screaming was awful but Dr Loewenthal, an Austrian Jew who had escaped the Holocaust, warned Mum against spoiling me. Given that I have been screaming for attention ever since, it might be said the doctor had quite an influence on my future life, although not as much as that other Austrian, Adolf Hitler – and his war. Husbands were taken from wives and children into the armed forces, denying sons and daughters the firm hand of a father. I became something of a tearaway and Mum was only too pleased to have me out of house and into the woods and fields beyond. My parents were immensely proud of their infant son. They entered me in a local baby show in August 1942 when I was fifteen months old. As reported in the Nottingham Journal, I won my category; the actor Tod Slaughter, famous for playing Sweeney Todd, presented me with a rosette and the actress Patricia Hastings gave me a kiss. There was also a cash prize in the form of a National Savings Gift Token sent by post from the secretary of the West Bridgford Urban District Council to ‘Master Douglas Keith Scott as First Prize in the Holiday at Home Week, Bonniest Baby Competition, Class II.’ While some are born famous and some seek fame, others have fame thrust upon them, thanks, in my case, to doting parents. Even though there was a war on and our situation dire, it was a case of keep calm and carry on. In 1942 Dad was called up into the army, first in a Royal Artillery regiment but later, when his commanding officers recognised his natural sporting talents, transferred to the Army Physical Training Corps for the last three years of the war. Dad wasn’t just a boxer. He played football for Nottingham Boys at Lenton School and made the annual town swim from Wilford Bridge to Trent Bridge. He was an athlete too and later became an official for the Nottingham Amateur Athletics Association. The ideals of amateur sport ran through his veins. My earliest memories are of Dad returning on leave with his white canvas kitbag in a corner of the hallway and the shiny peak and regimental badge of 5

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‘Master Douglas Keith Scott, First Prize in the Holiday at Home Week, Bonniest Baby Competition, Class II.’

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his army cap on the clothes peg. In 1943 he came home on leave from the army with several wooden toys, including a rocking horse he had made and a sheet of plywood with a quote from Grantland Rice carved into it: For when the one great scorer comes To mark against your name He writes – not that you won or lost – But how you played the game.

It was the only wall-hanging in my otherwise spartan bedroom and stayed above my bed until I left for college. I can still picture Dad marching down the road at the end of the war wearing his khaki uniform with his kitbag on his shoulder and being scooped up. I can still feel the rough serge of his battledress top. He was given the usual demob suit. It was pinstripe and had sharp lapels, and came in useful later whenever I went to fancy dress parties as Al Capone. Although our house was rented and there was no support from family money, I never thought of our family as poor. By careful management of their finances, along with recycling and buying second-hand, my parents were able to provide all the necessities. Their generation was used to frugal living, having vivid memories of the Great Depression of the early 1930s. Compared to the terraced houses my grandparents occupied, we seemed quite well off in our semi-detached. I remember the blackout curtains and a Morrison shelter – a metal, box-like table – in the middle of the dining room. The walls were a dreary mix of old mustard and green paint but we could draw near to a fire of glowing coke, which was cheaper than coal. Just before bed a shovel of slag, or powdered coal, was heaped on which kept the fire alive until morning, taking the chill out of the air. There was no central heating. Dad fetched the coke from the Radford gasworks, two miles away, carrying the sack over the crossbar of his bike with me sitting on top. During the war and the period of austerity that followed there was a good deal of mutual support among neighbours and friends who all seemed to take pride in coping, finding a certain dignity in belt-tightening and an egalitarian lifestyle that put everyone in the same boat. The constant worry of war and the rationing of essential items made everyone more equal and the gap between rich and poor seem less. To celebrate VE Day, the end of hostilities in Europe on 8 May, everyone carried their tables and chairs into the centre of our road and filled them with sandwiches, cakes and jellies. Effigies of Hitler were burned, leaving small craters in the tarmac that got wider and deeper with each passing year. 7

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The Charlbury Road VE Day party. Mum is standing second from right, and Brenda Jones is the fourth child back facing the camera on the left-hand side of the table.

Nottingham had escaped the worst of the bombing with 179 people killed and 350 injured – nothing like the carnage in London, where 50,000 died, and other major cities like Liverpool. There were many British servicemen killed in action and several grieving families on our road. Troops returning home went through a stressful period of readjustment. Mr Boothwright next door came back emaciated from intense fighting in North Africa. My strongest memory of the war was Lord Haw-Haw being hanged for treason. His strange name stuck in my mind every time he came on the radio with the words, ‘Germany calling, Germany calling,’ denouncing Jews and urging us to surrender. I later discovered he wasn’t English at all, despite the accent, but was in fact an American-born Irishman, William Joyce, who had a terrible scar from ear to mouth from being slashed across the face at a Conservative election rally in the 1920s. The scar split open when he was hanged. Neighbours were always round to gossip over cups of tea and most evenings play cards on the green baize covering our steel table. All this stopped for the nine o’clock news as everyone listened to the latest progress of our troops in North Africa and Italy and after the Normandy landings in France. The wireless was always on and my parents were avid listeners. Dad’s favourite was Tommy Handley and his ITMA team – It’s That Man Again! I will always associate Sunday roast dinner with Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh, starring Kenneth Horne and Richard Murdoch as senior staff officers battling red 8

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tape on a fictional RAF station. When the BBC put on Dick Barton, Special Agent after the war, every child on the street stopped playing just before 6.45 p.m. and rushed indoors to hear ex-commando Captain Richard Barton MC and his friends Jock and Snowy saving the nation night after night. The only problem was the timing; being indoors when it finished at 7 p.m. meant there was little excuse for not being in on time for bath and bed. Despite the privations of rationing everyone on our road ate well and seemed healthy. With so many children of a similar age, there was an endless series of parties and even with rationing there were always cakes and sandwiches left over and presents and prizes for the winners of musical chairs and pass-the-parcel. Children were given free bottles of cod liver oil and orange juice; once a day I was given a tablespoon full of glutinous Virol, said to be full of essential vitamins and other mysterious ingredients required by the body. Dad was adept at supplementing our meals with venison from Wollaton Park and rabbits and wood pigeon. Being a policeman probably helped with this. By the end of the long summer holidays we were covered in scratches from gathering blackberries along the railway embankment. Families climbed over their fences, crossed a ditch of stagnant water and waded into the prickly bushes clutching bags and basins before returning with them brimming with fruit. Mum put ours in the sink to soak and drew my attention to the little grubs that had floated out of the berries. It was a sure way to prevent me eating more than I brought home. Gardening and growing vegetables in allotments was a constant in Dad’s life. He encouraged Mum and later his sons to save every scrap of waste vegetable and other organic matter for the bean trench and compost heap. He grew a huge amount, not only vegetables but also tomatoes and soft fruit, in a relatively small space. I was naturally happiest imitating everything Dad did and was therefore subliminally inducted into gardening at a very early age. My parents fenced off the bottom of the garden for chickens. One Christmas Dad took the cockerel on to his lap and, after stroking it, wrung its neck for dinner, only the bird’s head came off and the cockerel escaped, running around the garden with blood spurting out of its neck. Early every morning the milkman came up our road in his horse-drawn cart leaving horse muck on the road and bottles of milk on the step. I can still hear the ring of Dad’s shovel on the tarmac, as he rushed out to scoop up precious manure for his vegetables and Mum’s roses. Mum quickly brought the milk into the house since the sparrows and starlings would peck through the cardboard cap to get at the cream. It was the cream Mum was after, to make butter and also cottage cheese after the cream had hung from the clothesline in a muslin bag for a day or two. Another of Mum’s seasonal jobs was blanching the runner beans, before salting them for the winter in large earthenware pots. 9

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Mum was a supervisor at the John Player cigarette factory when she became pregnant with me. Forever after she remained a housewife, always hard at work gardening, cooking, washing and mending clothes on the Singer sewing machine, knitting jumpers or darning socks over a Bakelite mushroom. Apart from visiting Dad at Larkhill near Stonehenge in Wiltshire during the war, Mum had hardly been further away from Nottingham than the east coast. Her world view was constrained by what she read in newspapers, heard on the wireless or gleaned from conversations with friends and neighbours. She put family first and was a little suspicious of everyone beyond it. When I nibbled at the rind on the thick wedges of Cheddar Mum bought, she’d warn me not to do it since ‘niggers had touched it.’ I had no idea what ‘niggers’ were; nor had my mum ever met anyone from Africa. Every so often gypsies would appear on the road, prompting an encounter between two very different worlds. The gypsies were usually youngish women with dark faces, long black hair and flashing eyes, wearing voluminous skirts, carrying a baby on one arm and a large wicker basket full of clothes pegs in the other. We all stopped play to gather round. Mum usually had a long chat with the gypsy woman who came to our door, before buying some pegs, but there was a sigh of relief when the nomadic gypsies moved on from our community, with its set values and codes of behaviour. Mum also spoke fearfully of the Earp’s farmhouse where, she said, they had ‘galloping consumption’. She also said it was haunted. Her anxiety impressed me, because I never did go to that farmhouse – not even into their orchard scrumping apples. I listened as Dad passed the time of day with Frank Earp. Frank had led a colourful life travelling around North America before the Great War, where he did some panning for gold. He had also suffered, having lost two daughters to tuberculosis and was later crippled after a dray horse bolted and the cart ran over his legs. After that he turned his tenanted farm into a market garden, letting Dad and other keen gardeners have strips of land at the beginning of hostilities so they could all ‘dig for victory’. Meals were always eaten sitting around the dining table. There was beef on Sunday with Yorkshire pudding, lots of gravy and our own potatoes and greens, usually followed by bread and butter pudding. There was more beef on Monday, with all the vegetables mixed and fried up as bubble and squeak, a simple meal because Monday was washday. There was enough leftover beef fat and gravy to have bread and dripping sandwiches with lots of salt for a few days. We had liver on Tuesday, tripe and onions on Wednesday, stew or belly pork on Thursday, fish on Friday, sausage and chips on Saturday. I never tasted cake better than Mum’s flapjack made from treacle. I never had a better dinner than Mum’s stew and dumplings made with parsley and so light and puffy, floating on the gravy; no bread made my mouth water more than 10

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Mum’s bread baked in the back oven with the aroma filling the house. I once asked Mum if she could make mashed potatoes like they did for school dinners. ‘How could you like potatoes from processed, powdered potato and not from our own, home-grown potatoes?’ she asked angrily, which made me think. There was a sudden evacuation of the kitchen when all the hot, sweet rice and milk in Mum’s new pressure cooker came spurting out of a failed valve and hit the ceiling, spraying the whole of the kitchen, including Mum, who then went back to using saucepans. There was always great consternation when the red gas meter, tucked away under the stairs, ran out of shilling pieces and the gas cooker went out, until more shillings were found after rummaging around handbags and coat pockets. Until her first washing machine arrived, Mum was kept busy boiling clothes in the steaming-hot gas copper, rubbing clothes and sheets down the washboard and finally rinsing off the soap in the dolly tub and putting them through the mangle. Then they were hung out on the clothes line, if it wasn’t raining, otherwise there would be clothes and sheets all over the house. Her workload only increased after my brother Brian arrived in April 1944. I wasn’t much help, quite the reverse, since I often caused her worry coming in late or going missing for hours at a time. Her constant lament was, ‘You will drive me into Mapperley, Douglas,’ when I finally reappeared, Mapperley being the local lunatic asylum, as such places were then called. The one advantage of Dad being away in the army was the chance for me to snuggle up in bed with Mum when it was freezing out, or after a bad dream, or when miserable with chicken pox. That came to an end when Dad was on leave. I would slip into their bed only for Dad to carry me back to mine, cold and alone in the empty room, cut off and miserable, especially when I had wet the bed. One night Dad gently led me back to bed from the landing where he had found me peeing down the stairs in my sleep. During the day I went off with the older boys along the canal or to ‘the land of ferns’, as we called it, and beyond to Bilborough and Strelley. I was drawn to open country; looking over the horizon, having unexpected encounters with other children and then, exhausted, finding my way home again. It gave me huge satisfaction. I remember going off with the gang in a new green coat Mum had saved up to buy for my fifth birthday. The older lads had an altercation with a gang of youths on a building site and I got caught in the crossfire, returning home caked in clay and crying with earache. Mum put me to bed with warm olive oil pouring out of my ears on to the pillow and the pain subsided. Mum’s usual remedies were Indian brandy and lemon in hot water for tummy troubles, Vicks and eucalyptus oil for chesty colds and, if that failed, I’d breathe in the steam from a basin of hot water and Friar’s Balsam from under a towel draped over my head. 11

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There were often hushed discussions about diphtheria, scarlet fever, polio and pneumonia, all of them a threat to life and limb – my first playmate, the neighbour’s three-year-old son, Philip Jones, died of pneumonia. In 1941 a patient had been successfully treated with penicillin but it was a few years before it was in common use. However, the National Health Service came into being in 1948 and Mum was quick to take advantage of it, having me admitted to hospital to have my tonsils removed and a year later having my ears syringed. Both have been perforated ever since. I was again admitted into hospital to have my sinuses drained, leaving me with a poor sense of smell. It was a half-hour walk to the shops and Mum would often persuade Brenda Jones, Philip’s sister, who was quite grown up and lived next door, to take me with her. I would go along on my tricycle, coming back with a stick of liquorice in my teeth, sucking a Sherbet Fountain out of a cardboard tube. Brenda was nine or ten and would tease me on the return journey, threatening to leave me, which had me in floods of tears. Eventually Brenda’s family left, never having got over the loss of Philip during the war. Our new neighbour was a Pole, Val Maciejewski, and his English wife Hazel. Val had fought for the Allies during the war and was now a hard-working electrician at Castle Donington power station. I often walked with my father up to the Raleigh Bicycle Company’s playing field where Dad was allowed to use the sporting facilities for training. In 1945 he had become British heavyweight amateur boxing champion and had set his sights on the 1948 Olympic Games. I would sit in the gym with its smell of leather punchbags as Dad and others slogged away at the big body-sized bags or rapidly pounded the smaller, rounder leather balls at head height, as they sprang back and forth. Skipping ropes swished through the air, flicking the boards, raising chalk dust as weightlifters hissed and groaned under their burden. I overhead the frightful tale of the the groundsman rushed to hospital after a rat ran up one trouser leg, bit him between the legs and then ran down the other. Eventually Dad had to come to terms with his age and the fact his wife wasn’t happy about him continuing to box; for a short time, it was a source of heated arguments. Mum was genuinely worried that Dad would suffer permanent injury since he was now boxing at heavyweight despite trying to diet down to light-heavyweight. So Dad gave up his Olympic ambitions for Mum and his family. At the end of every week he would put all his wages on the kitchen table for Mum to distribute. I was sometimes taken to see Dad box in ‘exhibition bouts’ with famous professionals of the time, Freddie Mills and Bruce Woodcock. This was usually in aid of local charities and to promote upcoming bouts. I became aware of the clear distinction between an amateur and a professional; there was 12

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Dad in a boxing pose, with the Army Physical Training Corps badge on his vest. He was British Army boxing champion in 1945.

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always the underlying assumption that those who boxed for money were not quite kosher – not true sportsmen. I don’t recall Dad making a big thing about it, beyond mentioning it in general conversation with friends. He was visibly disappointed if boxers, footballers or any other sporting personalities were featured in the newspapers for scandalous reasons. That was letting the sport down. I would sometimes walk alongside Mum pushing Brian in the pram around Wollaton Park, a journey of about four miles. Wollaton Park was a wonderful asset to the city with a seven-mile boundary wall that, according to Dad, took one bricklayer and his two apprentices seven years, seven months and seven days to build. There had been 2,000 American paratroopers camped on the park ready for D-Day and towards the end of the war we would see Italian and German prisoners of war lined up for exercise or being marched off to work on community projects. The centrepiece of the park was the Elizabethan Wollaton Hall, set on a man-made hill and sold to the city in 1925 by Lord Middleton to become a natural history museum. During good winters the grounds around the hall were a mecca for sledging, with parents and children trudging across the snow-covered fields from all the housing estates around about. There were also avenues of mature chestnut trees, and in the autumn, first with Dad and then with friends, we would scout around for perfectly weighted sticks to throw at the prickly fruit to knock it off. We’d take the chestnuts home and roast them on the fire, or in one of our dens. In 1946 I started Harrow Road primary school. The reception class teacher was Mrs Perrins, whose husband went down with his ship after being torpedoed by a U-boat. I remember the polished desks, the green checked tablecloths for when we had morning milk and lunch, the wooden bricks and Bakelite tubes. There was Annette Burton who couldn’t stop crying, a boy with greasy black hair who wouldn’t stop bullying and the screeching of chalk on board that made me shudder. We chanted the times tables, the only useful thing I learned in class. Mum had me learning the alphabet, which I would recite to Dad when he came home on leave; that helped me to read before I went to school. But I was never among the clever pupils, who were asked to write the number of milk bottles required on a slate and put it outside the classroom door. Nor was I the best-behaved pupil, certainly not in the eyes of the school dinner lady, Mrs Wall. Mum cycled to school one day to give me a message and asked Mrs Wall if she knew where I was. ‘If you ever find that little bugger, keep him away from me,’ she said. Mum questioned me later about this but I honestly had no idea what I’d done. Maybe I just had too much energy. I was forever running around the school playing fields, flowerbeds and outbuildings, one of a gang of kids in perpetual motion, chasing each other. The only 14

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time I sat still was when the teacher, for half an hour a day, read from Hans Christian Andersen. The whole class would sit rapt in the story; I have the clearest memory of those wonderful readings – like a familiar taste or smell. In the terrible winter of 1947 the snow was so deep it blocked our road completely and so we couldn’t get to school for three weeks. That was a magical time. I remember constant hot aches, building giant snowmen, igloos and a huge barricade, which survived long after the rest of the snow had gone. Dad persuaded the local blacksmith to make me a sledge with tubular steel runners that was incredibly fast. I had great fun whizzing past and flipping over other sleds, but then picked the wrong lad, as his brother, a huge, ginger-haired youth, boxed my ears. I often took things a little too far. When the big thaw came, the River Trent poured over its banks, flooding most of the low-lying area of The Meadows. Turgid river water came up through the sewers, flooding Grandma’s house at Queen’s Grove without warning. The first Roy knew of it was waking to hear the kitchen table banging on the kitchen ceiling underneath his bed as it bobbed up and down. Gran started downstairs and on the first step put her foot into the cold water. Dad reached the back of the house in a rowing boat to retrieve the more valuable items of furniture but most of it was ruined. Roy came to stay with us at Wollaton and after a few days the water subsided. Everyone got stuck into shovelling and bucketing out the mud. There was no insurance; the only help came from family, friends and neighbours. To keep me out of trouble, Mum persuaded Dad to take me with him to watch Notts County at Meadow Lane when he was on match duty. I settled into the crowd of men in their cloth caps and long gabardine macs. Tommy Lawton was playing for County, and every time he did something exciting the men beside me would leap off the benches. I soon lost interest and reached into my old gas mask case for the sandwiches that Mum had packed only to find that the top had come off the orange juice bottle and everything was soggy. The whole experience was miserable; I never watched league football from the terraces again. I fared better at Nottingham Ice Rink. Dad was on duty again and had inveigled a ticket for me on the front row to watch the Harlem Globetrotters give a demonstration of basketball. To my amazement and embarrassment, the star of the show, known as ‘Goose’, loped across and pulled me on to the court to demonstrate the set shot at the basket. I remember his huge, long fingers. He told me to put my little ones down each side of the ball, bring it down between my legs and throw it up towards the basket. I watched the ball’s trajectory as it flew through the hoop, earning me huge applause. That summer I turned seven, but before transferring from Harrow Road school to Robert Shaw Primary, our year was lined up en masse for a half-mile 15

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running race. This was the first time the staff had us competing against each other. The emphasis in school so far had always been self-improvement; the better pupils were simply examples to be emulated. I was way out in front, galloping along, when Mick Palmer, a much smaller boy, came racing past like a little steam engine. How could a smaller boy beat me? Mick’s speed and determination impressed me such that I always respected him and never underestimated other competitors thereafter. Mick and I were way out in front of the rest of the children and we were both lionised so, even though second, I was suddenly a bit of a star – there was no longer the need for me to seek attention by doing crazy things. I once ran through the open-air lavatory area and slipped on some wet concrete, bashing my head on a washbasin. Since I saw stars I made quite a meal of it, pretending to be unconscious until a group gathered, including my teachers. They pulled me back on my feet with instructions not to waste their time – again – so no ambulance then! Our parents often bicycled the three miles to Trent Lock and Beeston where Mum’s Aunt Edie lived in a big townhouse. To ease her parents’ financial burden, Mum had spent most of her formative years being brought up by her Aunt Edie and her husband Walter. My little brother Brian sat on Mum’s bike and up until that summer I travelled on Dad’s crossbar. Now I was seven, I had my own small bicycle. Aunt Edie lived with Great-Grandma Sanson who was well into her nineties. There was a huge Victoria plum tree in the garden with fruit so big and juicy my mouth waters at the memory. Great-Grandma had been born in the 1850s and dressed in the Edwardian style with lace-up boots, long black sateen skirts, a pinafore and a white, crimped collar. It occurred to me later that she must have known someone born in the middle of the eighteenth century, since her own great-grandmother had lived to a great age; the past is always close behind. She was a wonderful pastry cook, always dishing out slices of apple pie and she usually sent us home with half a crown. In the kitchen, behind a heavy curtain hanging from a wooden pole, was the door to the cellar. Plucking up courage while everyone was talking, I went down the cellar steps with the help of a little light filtering through the wroughtiron coal grating. I felt like an explorer, pushing into the unknown, opening chests and cases to see what I could find. Then the cellar door opened and Great-Grandma called down the steps: ‘Joe Lob lives down there, Douglas!’ and then she slammed the door shut. I was back up those stone steps as fast as my little seven-year-old legs would carry me.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Abbey, Edward, Desert Solitaire: A season in the wilderness (New York, 1968). Abbot, A.E., The Number Seven (London, 1962). Adams, Douglas, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (London, 1979). Afford, A.B., The Story of White Hall Open Country Pursuits Centre (Buxton, 1978). Ament, Pat, Royal Robbins: Spirit of the Age (Lincoln, 1992). Amos, Dr Denise, ‘World War Two in Nottinghamshire’ on The Nottinghamshire Heritage Gateway [website] <http://www.nottsheritagegateway.org.uk/events/ww2.htm> Angell, Shirley, The Pinnacle Club: A History of Women Climbing (Glasgow, 1988), 179. Anon., ‘California: Postscript to People’s Park’, Time, Vol. 95, No.7 (16 Feb. 1970). — Nottingham Journal (August 1942). — Outside (April 1978).

Drasdo, Harold, ‘Margins of Safety’ in Blackshaw, Alan, ed., The Alpine Journal, Vol.74 (London, 1969), 159–168. — The Ordinary Route (Glasgow, 1997), 156. Earp, Frank E., Nottingham Hidden History Team [website] <https://nottinghamhiddenhistoryteam.wordpress.com> — The A-Z of Curious Nottinghamshire (Stroud, 2014), 36–38. — ‘The Old Stones of Nottinghamshire’ in The A–Z of Curious Nottinghamshire (Stroud, 2014), 92. Earp, Joe, Nottingham Hidden History Team [website] <https://nottinghamhiddenhistoryteam.wordpress.com> Ellis, Derek, ‘Equipment and Technique: 1972’ in Pyatt, Edward, ed., The Alpine Journal, Vol.78 (London, 1973), 256. Erskine, Angus, in Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal, No.175 (1984), 91–94. Evans, Charles, ‘Valedictory Address’ in Pyatt, Edward, ed., The Alpine Journal, Vol.76 (London, 1971), 7–17.

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Goldsmith, Edward, Allen, Robert, and others, A Blueprint for Survival (Harmondsworth, 1972).

Bachman, B.B., ‘Baffin’ in Mountain Gazette, No.26 (Oct. 1974), 10–15. Bailey, Dan, ‘Stanage Causeway Resurfacing Furore’ on UKClimbing.com (April 2013) [website] <http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=68011> Barford, J.E.Q. ed., Climbing in Britain (Harmondsworth, 1946).

Gray, Dennis, ‘In memoriam: Eric Beard’ in Blackshaw, Alan, ed., The Alpine Journal, Vol.75 (London, 1970), 339–341. — Rope Boy (London, 1970), 304–316. Greenwood, Brian, in Mountain, No.15 (May 1971), 39. Gurnham, Richard, A History of Nottingham (Andover, 2010), 80, 159.

Boardman, Terry, ‘The Drive Towards a New World Order in the 1990s’, New View, No.1 (1999).

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Bonatti, Walter, On The Heights, trans. Edwards, Lovett F. (London, 1964), 88.

Harding, Warren, Downward Bound: A mad! guide to rock climbing (Englewood Cliffs, 1975).

Bonington, Chris, Everest South West Face (London, 1973). Borlee, Jacques, De Freyr à l’Himâlaya: les grandes heures de l’alpinisme Belge (Brussels, 1987), 96–97. Bridwell, Jim, ‘Brave New World’ in Mountain, No.31 (January, 1974). Brooke, Richard, ‘Notes 1973: Polar Regions’ in Pyatt, Edward, ed., The Alpine Journal, Vol.79 (London, 1974), 260. Buchman, Frank N.D., Remaking the World: The speeches of Frank N.D. Buchman (London, 1955), 46. Byne, Eric and Sutton, Geoffrey, High Peak: The story of walking and climbing in the Peak District (London, 1966), 187–192. Campbell, Robin, in Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal (May 1970), 339. Carpenter, Humphrey, That Was Satire that Was (London, 2000). Cleare, John, ‘Joe Brown at Eighty’ in The Climbers’ Club Journal (2011), 60–66. Craig, Robert W., Storm & Sorrow in the High Pamirs (Seattle, 1977), 209–210. Denny, Glen, Yosemite in the Sixties (Santa Barbara, 2007), 122, 123.

Harper, Fred, in Mountain Life, No.9 (Aug/Sept 1973), 6–7. Harwood, A.C., The Recovery of Man in Childhood, (London, 1958). Hastings, Max, All Hell Let Loose: The World at War 1939–1945 (London, 2011), 124. Jones, Chris, Climbing in North America (Berkeley, 1976). Kelly, Phil, Hoey, Graham, Barker, Giles, Peak Rock (Sheffield, 2013), 146. Kohli, M.S., and Conboy, Kenneth, Spies in the Himalayas: Secret Missions and Perilous Climbs (Lawrence, 2003). Lauria, Don, in American Alpine Journal (1971), 362. Lear, Linda, Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature (New York, 1997). Lee, Martin, and Shlain, Bruce, Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties and Beyond (New York, 1985). Lee, Peter, ‘Making a Billion Hindus Glow in the Dark’, CounterPunch (June 2008). Liedloff, Jean, The Continuum Concept (rev. edn, London, 1986). Loynes, Chris, and Higgins, Peter, ‘Safety and Risk in Outdoor Education’ in Higgins, Peter, Loynes, Chris, and Crowther, Neville,

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eds., A Guide for Outdoor Educators in Scotland (Penrith, 1997), 26–29.

Sillitoe, Alan, Life Without Armour (London, 1995).

Mackinder, Halford J., Democratic Ideals and Reality: A Study in the Politics of Reconstruction (London, 1919), 186.

Smith ,Carol, ‘Spy Robert Schaller’s life of secrecy, betrayal and regrets’ on Seattlepi.com (2007) [website] <http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Spy-Robert-Schaller-s-lifeof-secrecy-betrayal-1232285.php>

MacNaught-Davis, Ian, in Mountain, No.15 (May, 1971), 33. Miles, Barry, The Beat Hotel: Ginsberg, Burroughs and Corso in Paris, 1957–1963 (New York, 2001). Moritz, Carl Philip, Journeys of a German in England: A Walking Tour of England in 1782 (new edn, London, 2009), 176–177. Moulam, A.J.T., in Mountaineering, Vol.VI, No.1 (1971), 17. Mumm, A.L., Five Months in the Himalaya (London, 1909), 83. Murray, W.H., The Scottish Himalayan Expedition (London, 1951), 6–7, 98. Needham, David, Battle of the Flames: Nottinghamshire’s Fight for Survival in WWII (Ashbourne, 2009), 50, 78. Noyce, Wilfrid, To the Unknown Mountain: the ascent of Trivor (London, 1962). Nunn, Paul, ‘Asgard Outing’, Mountain, No.26 (March 1973), 33–35. Oldfield, Geoffrey, The Illustrated History of Nottingham’s Suburbs (2nd rev. edn, Nottingham, 2009), 88–89. Orwell, George, Keep the Aspidistra Flying (new edn, London, 2012).

— Raw Material (London, 1972).

Speck, Frank G., Naskapi: The Savage Hunters of the Labrador Peninsula (Norman, 1935). Steiner, Rudolf, World History In The Light Of Anthroposophy (London, 1950). Strong, Roy, The Spirit of Britain: A Narrative History of the Arts (London, 1999), 644 onwards. Sutton, Geoffrey and Noyce, Wilfrid, Samson: The Life and Writing of Menlove Edwards (Stockport, 1961). Synnott, Mark, ‘The Russian Way’ on Climbing [website] <http://www.climbing.com/climber/the-russian-way> Takeda, Pete, ‘The Secret of Nanda Devi’, Rock & Ice (Feb. 2012). <http://www.rockandice.com/lates-news/ the-secret-of-nanda-devi> Tejada-Flores, Lito, ‘Games Climbers Play’ in Cox, A.D.M., ed., The Alpine Journal, Vol.73 (London, 1968), 46–52. Terray, Lionel, Conquistadors of the Useless, trans. Sutton, Geoffrey (London, 1963).

Perrin, Jim, The Villain: The life of Don Whillans (London, 2005).

Tranter, Philip, and Tranter, Nigel ed., No Tigers in the Hindu Kush (London, 1968).

Pretty, Harry, ed., Oread Mountaineering Club: 50th Anniversary Journal 1949–1999 (Derby, 1999), 174.

Watson, Adam, A zoologist on Baffin Island, 1953 (Rothersthorpe, 2011), 229–234.

Pryor, Francis, The Making of the British Landscape: How We Have Transformed the Land, from Prehistory to Today (London, 2011), 579–585.

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Rebuffat, Gaston, Starlight and Storm, trans. Hunt, John, and Noyce, Wilfrid (London, 1956), 29–50. Redfield, James, The Celestine Prophecy (London, 1994). Reed, Peter, and Rottenberg, David, eds., Wisdom in the Open Air: The Norwegian Roots of Deep Ecology (Minneapolis, 1995), 24–25, 158. Reich, Charles A., The Greening of America (New York, 1970), 326. Roberts, David, Moments of Doubt and other mountaineering writings (Seattle, 1986), 214. Robbins, Royal, in Mountain Gazette, No.33 (May 1975), 24–25. — Basic Rockcraft (Glendale, 1971). Roper, Steve, Camp 4: Recollections of a Yosemite Rockclimber (Seattle, 1994), 223–225. Russell, Jean, ed., Climb if You Will: A Commentary on Geoff Hayes and His Club, the Oread Mountaineering Club (Ashbourne, 1974), 71–74. Scott, Doug, Big Wall Climbing (Oxford, 1974), 140–168. — Mountain, No.3 (May, 1969). — Mountain, No.22 (July, 1972), 20–25. — Mountain Craft, No.60 (Summer, 1963). — Mountain Craft, No.71, (Spring, 1966).

Wells, Colin, ed., ‘Jerry Wright’ in Who’s Who in British Climbing (Buxton, 2008), 534–535. Whillans, Don, ‘Appendix A: Solo by Motor Bicycle from Rawlpindi to Lancashire’, in Noyce, Wilfrid, To the Unknown Mountain: the ascent of Trivor (London, 1962). Whillans, Don and Ormerod, Alick, Don Whillans: Portrait of a Mountaineer (London, 1971), 52–53, 178–179. Whitworth, Douglas, Nottingham: Life in the Postwar Years (Stroud, 2006), 40. — Nottingham in the 1960s and 70s (Stroud, 2009). Williams, John L., America’s Mistress: Eartha Kitt, Her Life and Times (London, 2013). Wilson, Ken, ‘GUEST EDITORIAL: Ken Wilson on the BMC Presidential Election’ on UKClimbing.com (April 2009) [website] <http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=1787> — ‘The Cairngorm Tragedy’, Mountain, No.20 (March, 1972), 29–33. — ‘Royal Robbins Interview’, Mountain, No.18 (November, 1971), 27–35. Wilson, Ken, ed., ‘Recent Dirty Tricks’, Mountain, No.31 (January, 1974), 12. Winthrop Young, Geoffrey, Sutton, Geoffrey and Noyce, Wilfrid, Snowdon Biography (London, 1957).

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INDEX A Abalakov, Vitaly  332, 343 Abbey, Edward  202 Abbot, A.E.  1, 19, 215 Abkhazia  222 Achik-Tash valley  333, 344 Adams, Mike  204 Adelsfjell  250 Aden  194 Advanced Rockcraft (book)  315 Afghanistan  172, 174–187, 257 Ago di Sciora  100 Aiguille de Blatière, west face  63, 140, 141 Aiguille de l’M  79 Aiguille du Chardonnet  103 Aiguille du Dru  77, 237 Aiguille du Fou  110 Aiguille du Grépon  110 Aiguille du Midi  74, 140, 352 Aiguille du Moine  102, 103 Aiguille du Peigne  75, 112, 139, 140 Aiguille du Plan  110, 189–190 Aiguille Mummery  103 Aiguille Ravanel  103 Aiguilles de Sisse  147, 152–153 – Swedish expedition  163 Aiguille Verte  351 Ainslie Park School, Edinburgh  226 Akester, Roger  128, 150, 153 Alakadoree  176, 181, 182 Alaknanda river  327 Albert Ball Prize  3 Albert Hall  32 Albert Hall, Nottingham  191 Albert Premier hut  103 Albert, Stu  240 Alcock, Dave  196 Alexander the Great  149, 176 Algeciras  91, 115 Alice in Wonderland (book)  135 Allenby, Edmund  129 Allen, Nat  96, 97, 143, 218 All India Radio  289 All Saints’ Church  37 Almscliff  144, 224 Alpine Climbing Group  63, 192, 219, 255, 294 Alpine Club  192, 220, 255, 306 Alpine Journal (book)  192, 221, 253 Alps  72–76, 95, 98, 102–104, 109–110, 122, 140–142, 168, 172, 175, 184, 189–192, 196, 200, 200–204, 218, 227, 233, 255, 292, 304, 351–352 Al Qatrun  150, 151 Ama Dablam  366, 382 Amatt, John  250, 350 Ament, Pat  234 American Alpine Club  317, 352 American Direct, Petit Dru  233 Amhuinnsuidhe Castle  205 Amritsar massacre  50 Anathema, Cookie Cliff  354 Åndalsnes  250 Anderl, Michael  293 Andersen, Hans Christian  15

Anderson, Jack  317 Anderson shelter  4, 37 Anderson, Sheridan  225, 231 Andes  96, 137, 241 Angell, Shirley  103 Anglada, Josep  258 Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907  51 Angris, Bert  278 Animal Farm (book)  35 Anjuman Pass  182, 186 Ankara  171 Annapurna  137, 222, 223, 294, 303, 304, 308, 322, 357 Anster, John  388 Anthoine, Mo  197 Anti-Atlas  118, 122 Anya (Bavarian model)  342, 345 Aonach Beag  59 Aonach Mòr  59 Archer, Mr  128 Arches National Park  300 Arctic Institute  258 Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders  194 Arkwright’s Mill  41, 133 Arles  89 Army Physical Training Corps  5, 13 Arthur Terrace  26 Art of Coarse Rugby, The (book)  61 Arvons, footwear  69 Ascent (magazine)  xiii, 221 Ascherson, C.S.  219, 221 Askole  359 Askouan  122 Asni  116, 120 Aspley Lane  41 Astor, Lord William  129 As You Like It (play)  ix, xvi, xix, 85, 215 Atkins, Rob  56 Atlas Mountains  91, 104, 111, 112, 115–123, 125, 147, 155 Atlas of Men (book)  87 Atwood, Steph  354 Auf Wiederseh’n, Sweetheart (song)  32 Aunt Edie  16 Austin K9 lorries  174 Austria  110, 112 Avon Gorge  232 Axt, Wolfgang  284, 333 B Bachar, John  225, 315 Back Tor, Peak District  132 Badakhshan  176, 186 Badrinath  325, 327–329 Baffin Island  233, 256–258, 260–274, 277, 279, 294, 297–300, 312, 319–320, 331 Bagini Pass  320 Bagini Peak  322 Bahuguna, Harsh  283, 323 Bahuguna, Jai  283 Baird, Jill  258, 277 Baird, Pat  257–258, 266, 267, 271, 277 Bakewell  52, 68 Balcony Buttress, Castle Rock  249 Baldur Glacier  267

Ballin, Neville  130 Balloon Woods, Nottingham  26 Band, George  218 Bangalore  233 Banks, Mike  102 Bannister, Roger  54 Barbary sheep  157 Barclay, Bruce  338 Bardai  153, 161, 162 Barford, J.E.Q  61 Barlinnie prison  328 barn rugby, ‘murder ball’  71, 103 Barre des Écrins  89 Barts, University of London  75 Bash Street Kids  127 Basic Rockcraft (book)  315 Basle  72, 73, 100 Baslow  42, 68, 132 Baslow Bridge  144 Bates, George  33 Bathgate, Dave  298, 303, 306, 319 Bathgate, Maggie  308 Battle of Britain  4 Bauer, Gerhard  204 Bauer-Rudolph route, Cima Ovest  210 Baxter-Jones, Roger  388 Bay of Biscay  91 Beard, Eric ‘Beardie’  218–219 Beatles, The  138, 194, 201 Beattie, Ben  226–227 Beaves, PC Jerry  3 Bechap Sharan Kuh  184 Bednar, Peter  287 Bedouin  126, 151, 153 Beeching, Richard  138 Beech, Ken  86 Bee, John  56, 57 Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson (book)  xiii Beeston  16, 95 Beetham, Bentley  117, 118, 192–193 Bell, Dick  168, 170–171 Bell, J.H.  61 Bemrose  95 Ben Macdui  219 Ben Nevis  59, 97 Ben Wyvis  74 Bérarde, La  89 Bergen  250 Berkeley, California  232, 240 Berkeley Tribe (newspaper)  242 Bernese Alps  73 Bernina  200 Berquet, Michel  345 Berry, Celia  86 Berry, Mike  86 Bettembourg, Georges  388 Betws-y-coed  195 Beveridge Report  19 Beyond the Fringe (stage show)  54 Bhagirathi  327 BHOS, Tenaya Canyon  238 348, 358 Biafo Glacier  Bidean nam Bian  97 Big Overhang, The, Gogarth  197–199, 210 Bilborough  11, 22, 26

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INDEX

Biolay campsite  77, 78, 80, 102, 110, 140, 189, 201, 233, 257 Birchen Edge  42, 61, 94 Bird, Isabella  149 Birmingham College of Art  196 Biven, Peter  92 Black Boy Hotel, The  24 Blackpool FC  33 Black Rocks  41, 61, 65, 94, 148, 164 Blackshaw, Alan  63 Blakeney, Tom  192 Blake, Steve  319 Blower, ‘Torpedo’ Tom  30 Blue Band margarine  223 Blüemlisalphorn  73 Blum, Arlene  345–346, 353–354 Blyton, Enid  35 Boardman, Peter  380 Bobek, Hans  168 Boeuf Couloir  75 Bojan (muleteer)  181 Bolger, Terry  132, 197, 250 Bolton Wanderers FC  33 Bonafide, Cassius  304 Bonatti Pillar, Aiguille du Petit Dru  202–204, 205, 256 Bonatti, Walter  xiii, 109, 202, 256 Bonington, Chris  103, 138, 143, 223, 286, 294–295, 301, 303, 304–306, 320, 321, 322, 323, 349, 350, 351, 363, 365, 370, 372, 373, 375, 380, 387 Bonington, Conrad  365 Boon, Dan (Fullalove, James)  143 Boot Flake, The Nose  314 Boothwright, Mr  8 Boothwright, Mrs  88, 166 Boris (friend of Brian)  90 Boris (Pamirs)  342, 343 Bosanquet, Reginald  322 Bosses ridge, Les  79 Boulder, Colorado  236, 353 Boulder, The, Clogwyn Du’r Arddu  98 Bourdillon, Tom  281, 366 Bowes, Steve  111, 112, 113, 118, 120, 122, 123, 126, 130, 146, 153, 161, 165 Bowline Club  95 Boysen, Martin  89, 196, 226, 322, 325, 351, 380 Bradford Lads  95 Bradley, John  32 Braille Book, Cathedral Spire  238 Brailsford, John  236 Braithwaite, Paul ‘Tut’  294, 297, 298, 319, 331, 337, 340, 342, 343, 346, 350, 351, 364, 365, 366 Bramcote Hills  24 Brandler-Hasse, Cima Grande  124, 211 Brasher, Chris  309 Brave New World (book)  35 Bray, Reynold  258 Bregaglia  100, 114, 200 Breidablik  268, 271, 272 Breitenberger, Leo  288, 291 Brenner Pass  256 Brest  331 Bridges, E. Lucas  xv Bridwell, Jim  315, 354, 356 Bringing It All Back Home (album)  274 British Canadian Arctic expedition  258 British Empire  49, 51, 52, 61, 111, 129, 194, 358 British Karakoram Expedition 1975  358–360

British Mountaineering Council  61, 228, 229, 331 British Schools Exploring Society  42 Broad Peak  333 Brook, Helen (Jan’s mother)  132–135 Brook, Tom (Jan’s father)  132–135 Brother of St John of Jerusalem  76 Broughton Island  260 Brower, David  217 Brown, Don  249 Brown, Joe  43, 63, 64, 71, 89, 140, 143, 196, 218, 222, 223, 236 Brundage, Avery  202 Brunts Grammar School  56 BSA 650cc Super Rocket  140 Buchanan-Smith, Alick  323 Buchan, John  35 Buchman, Frank  82 Buckingham Palace  88, 387 Buhl, Hermann  285, 333 Bukta tent  72, 77 Bunbeg  172 Bunny Hill  92 Burgess, Derek  77 Burke, Beth  300, 308 Burke, Mick  257, 272, 294, 301, 303, 304, 357, 363, 364, 365, 366–368, 370, 372, 373, 375 – death  380 – ITN Sports Cameraman of the Year  350 Burnet, Alastair  322 Burton, Annette  14 Burton, Hugh  312, 349, 350 Burton-on-Trent  95 Butlin’s Holiday Camp  32 Byne, Eric  63 C Cádiz  91 Cafer Kule  170 Cairn Gorm  219 Cairngorms  226–229, 256 Cairngorm Tragedy 1971  226–229 Caithness  257 Calais  73, 91, 135, 150, 162 Camargue  89 Camp 4, Yosemite  238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 257, 354 Campbell-Kelly, Ben  250 Campbell, Robin  221 Capone, Al  7 Car Colston  36, 76, 92 Carey, Captain John  90, 91 Carey, John  199 Carey, Katherine  91 Caribou Glacier  272 Carlisle  132, 134, 172 Carlos, John  202 Carneddau  44 carnets de passages  142 Càrn Mòr Dearg  59 Carreg Alltrem  223 Carreg Wastad  197 Carroll, Lewis  135 Carson, Bruce  312, 353–354 Carson, Rachel  202 Casas de las Hortichuelas  115 Cassin, Riccardo  100 Cassin route, Cima Ovest  213 Cassin route, Piz Badile  100 Castle Naze  43 Castle Rock, Nottingham  4, 249–251

Cataclysm, Wildcat  130 Catastrophe Grooves, Wildcat  130 Cathedral Spire  238 Caucasus  222 Cemetery Gates, Dinas Cromlech  109, 197 Cenotaph Corner, Dinas Cromlech  64, 89, 109, 132, 197 Centennial (book)  354 Central Buttress, Black Rocks  42 Cerro de los Machos  114 Ceuta  91, 115 Chad  126, 142, 147, 152, 262 Chairman Mao  194, 202 Chakrarahu  137 Chalet Austria  89, 102, 322 Chamonix  73, 74, 77, 78, 79, 89, 102, 110, 111, 112, 140, 189, 201, 204, 233, 257, 351, 352 Changabang  318, 328, 349, 351 – first ascent, 1974  320–327 Changabang Glacier  325, 326 Changi prison  194 Channel Islands  90, 91 Chapman, Mark  356 char dham  327 Charlbury Road  3, 8, 20, 23, 26, 29, 32, 34, 138, 165 Chase, Brian  110 Chatsworth Edge  61 Chatterley trial, 1960  54 Cheddar Gorge  223 Cheney, Mike  365 Chesterman, Arthur  366, 368 Cheverst, Bill  124, 135–137, 136, 186, 189–190, 196 Chewang, Tashi  322, 324, 325 Chicago Stump (tree)  240 Chilwell house  166 Cholatse  366 chota char dham  328 Chotare, Sherpa  282 Chouinard-Herbert route, Sentinel Rock  353 Chouinard, Yvon  234, 236, 238, 241, 312, 356, 357 Chuo University Alpine Club  176 Churchill, Winston  5, 36 CIA  316–317 168–171 Cilo Dagı  Cima Grande  124, 135, 159, 210, 218 Cima Ovest  137, 204, 210–213 – rescue  137 Cima Piccola  135 Cima Piccolissima  135 Clark, Dave  379 Clarke, Charlie  370, 373, 380 Cleare, John  223 Clifton  144 Clifton Bridge  92 Climber and Rambler (magazine)  228, 352 Climbers’ Club  219, 223 Climbing in Britain (book)  61 Climbs on Derwent Valley Limestone (book)  144 Clive, Robert  50 Clochemerle (book)  35 Clogwyn Du’r Arddu  98, 197, 222, 225 Clogwyn y Ddysgl  197 Clogwyn y Grochan  197 Clough, Ian  138, 205, 294, 308 Club Alpin Français (CAF)  118 Cluro, Harry  97, 197 Cocksucker’s Concerto, Ranger Rock  236

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UP AND ABOUT

Coke (Tibbu tribesman)  154, 156, 157 Col de Balme  103 Col de l’Amguird  118 Col de la Selle  89 Col du Dome  80 Cold War  53, 262 Collin’s Almshouses  24 Columbia University  87 Columbus, Christopher  149 Comfort, Alex  64 Comici route, Cima Grande  124, 135 Commonwealth  49, 81 Conquistadors of the Useless (book)  62 Consciousness III  269 Continuum Concept, The (book)  xix, 19, 47 Cook, Captain James  50, 149 Cool, Mr  242 Corner, The, Clogwyn Du’r Arddu  98, 197 Coronation Street, Cheddar Gorge  222 Corriemulzie  184 Corrour bothy  228 Corwen Magistrates’ Court  195 Cottesmore Girls School  36 Cottesmore relay team  55 Cottesmore School  30, 57, 67, 104, 126, 127, 129, 130, 168 Couturier Couloir, Aiguille Verte  351 Couvercle hut  102, 103 Covington, Michael  315–316, 353 Cracknell, Dave  298 Craig, Bob  346 Crater Lake  266 Crewcut, Gogarth  196 Crew, Peter  196, 223, 226 Cromford  41, 143 Crooks, Mr  29 Cropper, Georgie  37 Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young  274 Crowbar, Gogarth  196 Crown Hotel  28 Cubs  37, 38, 39 Cuillin Ridge  218 Cumberland Peninsula  257, 258, 319 Cumberland Sound  262 Cunningham, Johnny  285 Curbar Edge  61 Curran bothy  226 Curzon, Lord George  50 Cyrn Las  197 D Daily Mail (newspaper)  91, 209, 385, 386 Dalai Lama  50, 51, 77 Dallas  138 Dangler, The, Stanage Edge  237 Dante’s Inferno  332 Daraut Kurgan  333 Dare, Dan  28 Darjeeling  324 Darley Dale  86 Darnell, Judy  104, 132 Darrah-i-Sharan  182, 183 Darwin, Charles  149 Dauphiné  80 Dauphiné, Le (newspaper)  190 Davidson, Cathy  226, 226–227 Davidson, Dai  xi Davidson, Maurice  49, 51, 53 Davies, Clive  94, 96, 97, 98, 108, 111, 112, 113, 118, 120, 121, 126, 130, 138, 142, 146, 152, 154, 156, 157, 159, 161, 298, 319, 346

Davies, Skip  138, 166, 193 Davis, Scott  238, 240 Dawa, Ang  302 Dawn Wall, El Capitan  312, 315 Day of the Triffids, The (book)  35 D-Day  14 Deepest Down Deepest Down, Highest Up! lecture  191–193 Delhi  328 Demeulemeester, Michel  159 Denali  353, 388 Denbighshire  195 Denman Street  3 Denman Street Lads’ Club  3 Denney, Paul  199 Denny, Glen  315 Dent du Géant  77, 109 Dent du Requin  77, 78 Derby  76, 95 Derby Road flat  128, 138 Derbyshire  41, 61, 109, 111, 127, 143, 144, 175, 182, 194, 199, 210, 237, 278, 310 Derwent, river  133 Derwent Valley limestone  97–98, 111, 130–132, 143 Desert Solitaire (book)  202 Devil’s Thumb, Greenland  258 Devil’s Tower, Wyoming  300 Diamond, The, Longs Peak  316, 353, 354 Dick Barton, Special Agent (radio show)  9, 22, 53 Dickens, Mr  127 Dickinson, Leo  xi, 211, 223, 231 Diemberger, Kurt  333 Dihedral Wall, El Capitan  311 Dinas Cromlech  98, 107, 197 Dinas Mot  197 Dinosaur, Gogarth  196 Direct Route, Dinas Mot  197 Disley, John  44 Dixon, Mr  33 Diz Valley  168 Dog and Partridge, near Ashbourne  144 Dolo  80 Dolomites  95, 98, 111, 135–137, 140, 142, 145, 204, 210–213, 217, 218, 241, 247, 250 Dolphin, Arthur  64, 95 Dôme de Neige, Écrins  89 Dôme du Goûter  79 Don Camillo  35 Donegal  63, 172, 174 Dorji Lama  302 Dorzhiev, Agvan Lobsan  50 Dovedale Dash fell race  96, 218 Dow Crag  97 Downes, Bob  63 Drasdo, Harold  43, 62, 63, 64, 149, 221 Dresch, Jean  118 Droites, Les  255 Drunken Sailor, The (song)  29 201 Dubcek, Alexander  Dublin  172 Duff, Jim  365 Duke of Edinburgh Award  76, 88 DuMais, Dick  231, 277 Dumfries  134 Dunn, Victor  33 Durbar Square  308 Durham University Climbing Club  193 Dusso  358 Duval, Clause  55, 56

Dwarka  Dyer, General Reginald  Dyhrenfurth, Günther  Dyhrenfurth, Norman  Dylan, Bob

327 50 324 283, 284, 324 143, 249, 274

E Eagle (comic)  28 Éamon de Valera  174 Earp, Frank  4, 10, 26 Earp’s farmhouse (Halfway House)  10, 18, 26 East Ham Town Hall  82 Ecopolitical Ring of Co-operation  255 Écrins  89, 90 Edale  52, 132 Eden, Anthony  53 Edinburgh Education Authority  227 Education Act 1943  43 Edward III (King)  250 Edwards Air Force Base  357 Edwards, Menlove  63 Edwards, Rhys  228 Eel River  240 Eiffel Tower  222 Eiger  76, 137, 138, 191, 294, 308, 322 – Eiger Direct 1966  225, 234, 322 Eighth Army  152 Eisenschmidt, Eva  342, 345 El Capitan  224, 230, 232, 233, 238, 241, 313 El Cap Spire  246 El Cap Tower  311 Eldorado Canyon  236, 353 Eliot, George  35 El Portal  354 Elterwater Youth Hostel  194 Embick, Andy  241 Emerald Crack, Chatsworth Edge  237 Enniskillen  172 En Solitaire  319–320 Envers du Plan  78 Epping Forest  59 Erskine, Angus  258 Eskdale Outward Bound  69–71 Eskimos  248, 260, 262–264, 266, 319 Estcourt, Nick  294, 301, 303, 306, 363, 366, 372, 373 Estes Park  315, 353 Ethiopia  147 Eton  70 Evans, Charles  220, 281, 351, 366 Evans, John  284 Évenements, Les  201 Évêque, L’  103 Everest  xv, 42, 88, 126, 216, 257, 258, 280–293, 296, 321, 388 – bivouac near summit, 1975  379–380 – Camp 1, 1975  366–370 – Camp 2, 1975  370–372, 380 – Camp 3, 1975  372–373 – Camp 6, 1975  374–375, 377, 380 – Camps 4 and 5, 1975  373 – first ascent 1953  32, 222, 281, 366 – Hamish leave expedition, 1975  373–375 – international expedition 1971  283–284 – Japanese expedition 1973  309 – Japanese expeditions  281–283 – rock band, 27,500 feet  304, 377 – route finding 1975  372 – south-west face, 1975  349–351, 363–383 – south-west face, autumn 1972  294–295, 300–309

396

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INDEX

– south-west face, spring 1972  284–293, 302, 322 – upper south-west face topo  378 – west ridge 1963  281, 282 Everett, Mr  34 Excelsior 250cc Talisman Twin  92 Exit Chimneys, Troll Wall  253

F FA Cup Final 1953  33 Fanck, Arnold  200, 201 Farsi  182 Fat Man’s Chimney, Black Rocks  42 Fayzabad  175, 176 Fell and Rock Journal  352 Ferguson, Duncan  316 Ferro da Stiro, Pizzi Gemelli  100 Fezzan  165 Fielding, Henry  35 Fiery Jack, liniment  58 Fissure Brown  140, 141 Fitschen, Joe  234 Fiva Farm  253 Five Months in the Himalaya (book)  320 Flake Crack, Troll Wall  253 Flaky Wall, High Tor  98, 132 Flammes des Pierres  204 Fleming, John  186, 186–187, 267 Fletcher, Mr  36 Flinders Island  50 Flitterman’s, Sneinton  42 Folkestone  140 Foops Shawangunks  278 Forbes Arête, Aiguille du Chardonnet  103 Forester, C.S.  35 Fork Beard Glacier  266 fortune-teller’s prophecy  1 Fothergill, Watson  24 4 Way Street (album)  274 Fox, Percy  36 Franklin, Sir John  149 Freddy (Tibbu tribesman)  154 Free France  152 French Equatorial Africa  152 French Foreign Legion  126 Frendo Spur, Aiguille du Midi  140 Frêney Pillar  103, 138 Fresno  356 Freya Peak, Baffin  265, 270, 271–272 Friar’s Balsam  11 Friends of the Earth  218 Frison-Roche, Roger  148 Frobisher Bay  257, 260, 263, 297, 320 Froggatt, Ben  61 Froggatt Edge  61 Frost, Tom  234, 236, 246, 316, 317, 324, 357 Fulton, Ian  342 Fundraising lectures  137–138 Furggen Direct, Matterhorn  101 Fyffe, Allen  368, 370, 372 G Gaddafi, Colonel Muammar  Gagra, Soviet Union  Gallagher, Hughie  Gallagher, Mr ‘Jock’  Gallwas, Jerry  Gambit Climb, Clogwyn y Ddysgl  Games Climbers Play (essay)  Ganges river  Gangotri

163 222 172 33 234 197 221 316 327

Gangue Grooves, Willersley Castle Rocks  143 Garden of Eden, The, Kathmandu  301 Gardom’s Edge  42, 61 Garfunkel, Art  315 Garhwal Himalaya  281, 320, 326 Garside, Liz  172 Garside, Mick  43–44, 52, 56, 59, 62, 82, 94, 97, 108, 126, 138, 140, 142, 146, 152, 154, 157, 161, 172, 174 Garve Station  73 Gaulle, Charles de  201, 204 Gaza  194 Géant Icefall  74 Gemmi Pass  73 Geneva  162, 191 Geneva Spur  370 Gentil, Peter & Maureen  236 Geographical Pivot of History, The (paper)  51 Gerhardt, Clark  317 Germain, Bernard  345 Gerty, Ann  300 Geste, Beau  126 Gibbins, James  209, 210 Gibraltar  90–91, 112, 113, 122 Gilgamesh  149 Gillies, Ray  73, 97, 98, 108, 110, 111, 112, 113, 118, 120, 126, 130, 131, 138, 143, 144, 146, 150, 152, 157, 159, 160, 161, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177–180, 181, 182, 187, 193, 196, 197, 231, 232, 257, 258, 267, 298 Gill, John  225 Gilman, Peter  210 Giobellina, Ariane  360 Gippenreiter, Eugene  333–334 Girdle, The, Dinas Cromlech  98 Glen Canyon  202 Glen Coe  97, 205 Glen Etive  97 Glen Feshie  226 Glenmore Lodge  227, 229 59 Glen Nevis  Glen Ulladale  205, 279 Glidden, Jock  342, 343 Glorious Glosters  61 Glyder Fach  44 Glyder Fawr  44 Gmoser, Hans  349–351 Gobi Desert  50 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von  388 Gogarth  195–200, 197–199, 222, 223 Golan Heights  194 Golden Fleece pub  93 Goldsmith Street, Nottingham  93 Goodwin, Colonel Eric ‘Buster’  358 Goon Show, The (radio show)  53 Gorak Shep  283, 364 Gordale Scar  143 Gordon, Adrian  364, 365 Gordon, General Charles  50 Gosling, Ray  26, 58 Gouffre Berger cave  191 Goûter hut  79 Graham, Mick  34, 35, 49, 57 Granada  112 Grand Capucin  109 Grandes Jorasses  77 Grands Mulets hut  80 Grandstand (TV show)  222 Grassington  143 Grau-du-Roi, Le  90

Gray, Dennis  95–96, 107, 108, 138, 143, 218, 221, 224, 229, 331 Great Cracks, Troll Wall  253 Great Depression  7 Great Pacific Iron Works  236, 356 Great Smog, 1952  39 Great Wall, Clogwyn Du’r Arddu  225 Great War, the  2, 10 Great Western, Almscliff  144 Great Zab river  168 Greenbank, Tony  223, 236, 237, 249 Greenfield, George  286, 387 Greening of America, The (book)  269 Green, Michael  61 Greenwood, Brian  224, 350 Gregory, Grandad  2, 15 Gregory, Grandma  1–2, 166 Gregory, Keith  2 Gregory, Roy  2, 15 Grey Corries  59 Grieve, John  205 Griffiths, Mrs  20 Grindsbrook Clough  52 Grosser Gott (hymn)  75 Grot, Gordale Scar  143 Grove Tavern  2 Guareschi, Giovannino  35 Güéjar Sierra  112, 115 Guevara, Che  194 Gugliermina  63 Guillamón, Francisco  258 Gujarat  327 Gurdjieff, George  xiv Gurkhas  302 Gyatso, Sonam  317 H Habeler, Peter  241, 243, 244–247 Hadlum, Ann  300, 352 Hadlum, Dez  34, 56, 57, 62, 76, 78, 79, 80, 94, 96, 98–102, 107, 108, 125, 143, 197, 200, 300, 352 Hahn, Kurt  42, 69 Haim, Werner  288 Hakkâri Province  169, 171 Half Dome  233, 234, 310, 312, 315 Hall, Brian  227 Hancock’s Half Hour (TV show)  88 Handley, Tommy  8 Hankinson, Alan  322 Happer, Gordon  51, 57, 104, 109, 111, 127, 168 Harding, Warren  234, 235, 240, 241, 242, 312 Hargreaves, A.B.  61 Haridwar  328 Harlin, John  234 Harper, Fred  227, 229 Harrer, Heinrich  76, 77 Harrison, George  241 Harris, Reg  58 Harrow Road primary school  14 Harvey Hadden Stadium  58 Harwood, A.C.  47 Haston, Annie  360 Haston, Dougal  223, 284, 286, 294–295, 301, 303, 304, 306, 308, 322–323, 325, 326, 328, 350, 351, 363, 366, 368, 373–380 – funeral  387–388 Haw-Haw, Lord (Joyce, William)  8

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Hayden, Wesley  40, 59, 67, 68, 71, 72, 76, 78, 80, 81, 86, 89, 94 Hayes, Geoff  86, 95 Hazrat-i-Sayet  176, 182 Healey, Denis  194 Heartland Theory  51 Heart Ledge, Salathé Wall  246 Heart Route, El Capitan  238 Heath, Mike  317 Heen, Arne Randers  253 Helsby Crag  4 Helvellyn  70 Hemingway, Ernest  35 Hemlock Stone  4, 24, 25, 148 Hemming, Gary  233 Hendrix, Jimi  356 Hennek, Dennis  223, 238, 239, 241, 243, 244, 257, 263, 267, 271, 272, 277, 279–280, 294, 297, 298, 299, 300, 312, 353, 357 Hepplewhite, Bill  202 Hepplewhite, Martin  202 Herbert, TM  238, 242, 244 Herbert, Wally  149 Hereward the Wake  206 Herrligkoffer, Dr Karl Maria  285, 286, 287, 288, 291, 292, 293, 304, 352 Herzog, Maurice  222 Hesse, Hermann  269, 273 Hetchel, Sibylle  310 Hewing, Rod  96 Hewlett, Mark  89 Heyerdahl, Thor  149 Hidden Persuaders, The (book)  202 Hiebeler route, Pik Lenin  342 Hiebeler, Toni  255, 284, 335 Higgins, Molly  335, 352–356, 357–358 Higgins, Tom  xiii High Exposure, Shawangunks  278 Highfield, Neil  128 High Pavement Grammar School  30 High Peak (book)  63 High Tor  41, 92, 97, 130, 132, 135, 143 Hillary, Edmund  32, 281, 285, 350, 366, 378 Hillary School, Kunde  387 Hillary Step  377, 378, 379 Himalaya  xvi, 96, 137, 172, 218, 257, 312, 316 Himalayan Mountaineering Institute  324 Hindu Kush  172, 174–187, 190, 192, 193, 200, 253, 262, 381 Hirabayashi, Katsutoshi  282 hitchhiking  73–74, 77, 104, 201, 356–357 Hitler, Adolf  5, 7, 19 HMS Beagle  149 Hobbit, The (book)  269 Hobe, Alice von  287, 293 Hoggar  153 Høibakk, Ralph  253 Hoibakk’s Chimney, Søndre Trolltind  250 Holmes, Bob  187, 250, 251, 385, 386 Holmes, (neé Madgett), Gina  249, 385 Holt, Lawrence  42, 69 Homer, George  241, 243 Hong Kong  169 Hope Croft (house)  73 Horatius at the bridge  35 Hornbein, Tom  281, 282 Horne, Kenneth  8 Hörnli Ridge, Matterhorn  135 Hoshab Castle, Turkey  167 Hoskin, Cyril (Lobsang Rampa)  77

Hotel Shanker, Kathmandu  301 Hotel Sputnik, Moscow  332 Hotspur (comic)  28 Housing Act 1949  24 Howard the Coal  199 Howard, Tony  125, 250, 253 Huber, Adi  288 Huber, Alex  124 Hudson Heights  277 Hudson, Henry  149 Hudson, John  52 Hudson’s Bay Company  262 Hunt, Frank  56 Hunt, John  88, 281, 304, 366 Hunt, Roger  56 Hunt, Sir John  32 Hunt, Steve  42 Hurly, Tom  294 Hüttl, Edelwald  287 Huxley, Aldous  35 I I Ching (book)  xiv Idris of Libya (King)  163 Idyllwild  315 Igjugarjuk  xiv Ilam Hall  218 I’m All Right Jack (film)  20 Imlil  116 Imposter (mountain, Tibesti)  159 Indian Mountaineering Foundation  320 Ingle, Baz  23, 196 Ingoldmells  32, 33 Innsbruck  82, 110, 135 Intelligence Medal of Merit  317 International Scout Centre, Kandersteg  72 International Society of Arboriculture  222 Inverness  73 Ireland  172–174 Irhzer n’Bou Imrhaz  118 Iron Curtain  72, 331 Isabella of France  250 Isle of Arran  63, 67 Isle of Harris  204, 205 Isle of Man  134 Isle of Skye  205 Itakura, Professor  176, 193–194 Ito, Reizo  284 It’s That Man Again! (radio show)  8 Ivy Sepulchre, Dinas Cromlech  197 I Want to Wake up in the Mountains (song)  346 J Jaborandi, Gogarth  196 Jagannath  327 Jannu  137 Japanese Alpine Club  282 Javelin Blade, Idwal  42 Jebel Marra  147 Jehovah’s Witnesses  140 Jericho Wall, Dinas Cromlech  135 Jill (girl friend)  37, 56 John Muir Trail  240 John o’Groats to Land’s End  218 John Player School  34, 57 John Player & Sons  10, 20, 32, 257 John Player Sports Ground  55 Johnson, Beverly  310–311 Johnson, Dr  68 Jones, Arvon  69 Jones, Brenda  12 Jones, Chris  238

Jones, George  96, 130, 186, 190 Jones, Philip  12 Jones, Tom  132 Joshimath  327 Journeys of a German in England (book)  67 Juke Box Jury (TV show)  54 Jukes, Mavis  239, 241 Julian Alps  80 Jung, Carl  85 Just So Stories (book)  37 K K2  204, 222, 388 Kabul  175, 182, 187, 358 Kafiristan  186 Kalanka  318, 326 Kandersteg  72 Kangchenjunga  64, 218, 220, 324, 351, 388 Kangshung face, Everest  377, 380 Kano, Takashi  283 Karakoram  97, 101, 181, 222, 233, 294, 312, 357, 358–360 Kasparek bivouac  213 Kathmandu  148, 286, 287, 301, 308, 360, 385 Kaujan  186, 186–187 Kaye and Ward (publisher)  241 Keaton, Buster  277 Kedarnath  328 Keeler Needle  353 Kelsey, Joe  231, 278 Kennedy, John F.  138 Kent, Kelvin  302 Keran  181 Kerouac, Jack  312 Keuper marl  21 Khrushchev, Nikita  53 Khumbu  302, 308, 350, 366, 387 Khyber Pass  358 Killabuk (hunter)  266 Kilnsey  143, 222 Kinder Downfall  132 Kinder Scout  xii, 48, 52 King Arthur  35 King, Martin Luther  129, 201 King’s Brook  40 King’s Parade Glacier  274, 300 King Swing, The Nose  311 Kipling, Rudyard  37 Kirkstone Pass  134 Klagenfurt  80 Knauth, Beryl  241, 242, 244 Knights of the Round Table  35 Koch, Phil  242, 243, 257, 267, 271, 272, 274, 277 Koh-i-Bandaka  175, 176, 177–180, 183, 193, 286, 381 Koh-i-Morusq  185 Koh-i-Sisgeikh  183, 184 Kohli, Captain M.S.  316, 317 Kokcha river  176 Kokcha Valley  182, 186 Komito, Steve  315, 316, 353 Konishi, Masatsugu  282 Kon-Tiki expedition  149 Korizo Pass  152 Kor, Layton  316 Kostya (Pamirs)  342, 343 Kroger, Chuck  238 Krylenko face  335, 342, 346 – avalanche  335–338 Krylenko Pass  334, 335, 340

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INDEX

Kuen, Felix  288, 291, 292 Kullu  111 Kumar, Captain Kiran  323, 324 Kunde  364 Kunde Hospital  350 Kurdistan  168, 170, 172, 183, 193, 257 Kurds  170 Kurut  181 Kyrgyzstan  333 L Lac d’Ifni  120 Lady Mayoress, Nottingham  192 Lagganlia  226, 227 Lagoe, John  70 Laguna de la Caldera  114 Laguna del Caballo  114 Lagunillo del Veleta  114 Lahoussie (Atlas guide)  116 Lairig Ghru  219, 228 Lake District  69–71, 95, 97, 134, 194, 236, 278 Lake, Mr  20 Lake Superior  300 Lake Tahoe  240 Lake Van  168 Lambert, Raymond  281 Lamosangu  301, 302 Landau, Rom  xv Langmuir, Eric  63, 227 Laski, Marghanita  53 Lata  327 Lauria, Don  238, 315 Lawrencefield  98 Lawrence of Arabia (film)  122, 129 Laws, Eric  249 Lawton, Tommy  15 Lean, David  122 Leaning Tower  241 Lecco  100 Leclerc, General Philippe  152 Lecomte, Jean  159 Ledeboer, Peter  229 Lee-Enfield  170 Lee, Guy  175, 177, 184, 186, 193, 205, 207, 223, 232, 253, 257, 267, 271, 272, 274, 277, 278, 279–280, 331, 340, 346 Lees, Johnny  102 Lenin Glacier  337 Lennon, John  201, 385 Lenton Abbey Scout Hut  138 Lenton Boulevard  109 Lenton Boulevard School  43 Lenton Secondary School  3 Leonardi, John  41 Leopold (King)  50 Lépiney, Jacques de  118 Leptis Magna  150 Leuk  73 Levick, George Murray  42 Lewis, Sam  57, 128, 174 Leysin  388 Lhasa  51 Lhotse  306, 370 Libya  149, 150, 165 Lido, Venice  75 Liedloff, Jean  19, 47 Ligrane  120 Limelight, High Tor  99 Lincoln Memorial  129 Lincolnshire Wolds  32 Lipkin route, Pamirs  334, 340, 342

Little Tryfan  44 Little Wing, Ribbon Falls  356 Littlewoods  26 Llanberis Pass  107, 195, 197, 205 Llandudno  44, 195 Loch Morlich  219 Lockwood, Neil  253 Loewenthal, Dr  5 Lone Tree Groove, Willersley Castle Rocks  143 Lone Tree Gully, Black Rocks  42 Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth  220 Long, John  225, 356 Longland, Jack  42, 229 Longs Peak, Colorado  353 Longstaff, Tom  258, 320 Look What They’ve Done To My Song (song)  274 Lord Mayor, Nottingham  192 Los Angeles  234, 240 Los Angeles Times (newspaper)  242 Lost Arrow Spire  241 Loughborough  91, 92 Loughborough College  43, 75, 80, 94 Lovatt, Jerry  102 Lover’s Leap café, Stoney Middleton  278 Lovins, Amory  218 Lowe, Jeff  337, 342, 343 Lowe, Jennifer  22, 32 Ludi, Heidi  342, 345 Lukla  287, 308 Lumpy Ridge  316 Lynn, Vera  32 Lyons Corner House  59 M M1, High Tor  98 Maag, Sepp  288 Maciejewski, Val  12 MacInnes, Hamish  97, 205, 223, 280, 285, 286, 287–292, 293, 294, 301, 303, 304, 306, 363, 364, 368, 373–375 Mackinder, Halford  51 Macklin Street  96 Mad (magazine)  135 Madwoman’s Stones  52 Magic Mushroom, El Capitan  312 Mahabharata (book)  328 Main Wall, Cyrn Las  197 Makalu  137 Malham Cove  143, 152 Mallory, George  53, 281 Mamas and the Papas  201 Mamores  59, 72 Manchester Gritstone Climbing Club  143 Mandakini  328 Mann, Neil  56 Manor Farm  92 Mansell, Gordon  43, 63, 64 Mansell, Maureen  64 Mapperley (asylum)  11 Mardalsfossen  255 Margins of Safety (essay)  149, 221 Maria Lake  183 Marmet, Jürg  258 Marrakesh  115, 116, 118 Marriott, Dave  258 Martello Tower  174 Martigny  162 Martin, Millicent  54 Martin’s Pond  24 Marts, John  337, 342 Masherbrum  294

Massacre of Chumik Shenko, 1904  50–51 Massoud, Ahmad Shah  186 Matchless motorbike  195 Matlock  93, 143 Matsuura, Teruo  282 Matterhorn  72, 73, 101, 103, 135, 222 Matthews, Elaine  277 Matthews, Stanley  33 Mauri, Carlo  283, 284 Maxfield, Andrew  43, 62 Maxim guns  51 Mazeaud, Pierre  283, 284, 345 Mazeno Peak, Pakistan  xi McCarthy, Jim  278, 316 McGill University  258 McKeith, Alistair ‘Bugs’  224 McLoughlin, Will  140 McNaught-Davis, Ian  222, 223, 225, 304 Meadow Lane  15 Meadows Boys’ Club  168 Meadows, David ‘Dan’  96, 130, 146, 152, 153, 161, 298 Meadows, The, Nottingham  1, 15, 166 Meat Grinder, Cookie Cliff  356 Mechanics’ Institute library  68 Medenine barracks  150 Mediterranean  90, 113 Mehdi, Haji  359 Mekon, The  28 Melly, George  138 Mengele, Josef  87 Mer de Glace  74, 77, 110 Mescalito, El Capitan  312 Messner, Günther  257 Messner, Reinhold  209, 241, 255, 256, 257, 285, 286, 352 Mia Hvara river  169 Michael from Mountains (song)  316 Michener, James  354 Middleton Boulevard  28, 92 Middleton, Lord  14 Midterm, Arch Rock  354 Milestone Buttress  44 Milligan, Spike  54 Mills and Boon  35 Mills, Freddie  12 Minch, The  205 Mingma  364–365, 366 Ministry of Defence  193 Mir Samir  175, 182, 186, 199 Mitchell, Fergus  206 Mitchell, Joni  315 Mitchell, Lieutenant Colonel Colin  194 Modra  154, 156, 159 Moffatt, Gwen  102 Molyneux, Brian  211 Monastyrski, Michael  338, 344 Mondarruego  258 Monkey Wrench Gang, The (book)  202 Monkhouse, F.J.  72 Monsanto  269 Mont Blanc  63, 72, 74, 79, 80, 103, 140, 201 Mont Blanc du Tacul  109 Montenvers  74, 77, 89, 102, 190, 322 Moorhouse, Denny  205 Moral Re-Armament  82 Morgan, Jeff  211 Moriarty, ‘Big Eley’  388 Morin, Yves  345 Moritz, Pastor  67 Morocco  89, 91, 111, 115, 115–123, 125, 129, 149, 182

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Morris Commercial MRA1 trucks  138, 142 Morrison shelter  7 Morte d’Arthur  72 Mortimer, Roger  250 Mortimer’s Hole  250 Mortlock, Annette  102 Mortlock, Colin  101, 192 Moscow  201 Mosedale, Peter  43 Moseley, Ken  256 Mother Ganga (see Ganges)  327 motorbikes  92–93 Moulam, Tony  221 Mountain Bothies Association  228 Mountain Craft (magazine)  125, 196, 223, 224, 225 Mountaineering Activities Company  236 Mountaineering Association  43, 79, 94, 102, 110, 128, 142, 196 Mountain Leadership Training Board  229 Mountain Life (magazine)  227, 228 Mountain (magazine)  204, 221, 223–229, 228, 231, 237, 255, 256, 292, 294, 304, 310, 315, 351 Mountain World (book)  256, 258, 272 Mount Asgard  260, 267, 271, 272–274 – East Pillar 1972  298 Mount Errigal, Ireland  174 Mount Everest Foundation  129, 142, 257 Mount Overlord, Baffin  319 Mount Thor, Baffin  266, 275 Mount Turnweather, Baffin  319 Mount Ulu, Baffin  266 Mount Whitney, California  240, 353 Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh (radio show)  8 Muir, John  94, 240 Muir Snag  240 Muir Wall, El Capitan  238 Mulhacén  114 Mullach nan Coirean  59 Mumm, Arnold  320 Munch, Edvard  xi Munday, Don  xv Mundella Grammar School  67, 93 Munjan River  176, 181, 183, 184 Munros  59 Murdoch, Richard  8 Murray, Charles, Earl of Dunmore  206 Murray, W.H.  321, 388 Murzuq Sand Sea  149, 150, 162, 193 Muztagh Pass  50 Muztagh Tower, Karakoram  222 MV Saint Ernest (ship)  90, 91 N Nachtigal, Gustav  153 Næss, Arne  253, 255 Nakajima, Hiroshi  282 Naked Edge, Eldorado Canyon  316 Namche Bazaar  351, 385 Nanda Devi  316–317, 321, 324, 326 Nanda Kot  281, 316 Nanga Parbat  257, 285 Nantillons Glacier  109 Narita, Kiyoshi  282 Narrow Slab, Troll Wall  253, 254 Nash, Graham  274 Nasser, Gamal Abdel  52 National Geographic (magazine)  312 National Health Service  12, 20, 95, 130 National Insurance  20 National Service  2, 61, 87

Neate, Jill  352 Nelson, Chris  312 Nelson, Horatio  50 Neltner hut  116 Neptune, Gary  317 Nestorians  168 Neuman, Alfred E.  135 New Age, The  xiii Newbold, Peter  52, 58 Newby, Eric  175 New Paltz  277 Newsweek (magazine)  224 Newton, Ned  250 New York  231, 278 Nicol, Dave  202–204 Niligiri  137 Nixon, Richard  204, 274, 345 Noble, Lyn  89, 94, 100, 101, 109, 228 – Ago di Sciora accident  102 Nonne, La  103 Norgay, Tenzing  32, 281, 285, 366, 378 Normandy landings  8 Norse tales of Asgard  35 North Africa  111, 114, 118, 142, 156, 162 North America Wall, El Capitan  234, 238, 244 North, Dr Alan  338, 340, 342 Northern Territories  258 North Face Direct, Aiguille du Plan  189–190 North Lees campsite, Peak District  95 North Stack, Gogarth  197 North Wales  95, 175, 194, 218, 224, 241, 278, 294 North-West Passage  149 Norway  233, 250–255 Nose Direct, Strone Ulladale  223 Nose, The, El Capitan  234, 237, 238, 256, 311, 311–312, 314 Nose, The, Strone Ulladale  231, 232, 278, 279–280 No Tigers in the Hindu Kush (book)  184 Nottingham  43, 67–68, 73, 80, 92, 93, 109, 120, 137, 154, 175, 186, 191, 217, 249, 304, 309, 340, 353, 360 Nottingham Amateur Athletics Association  5, 54 Nottingham Attendance Centre for Juveniles  165 Nottingham Blitz, 8–9 May 1941  4 Nottingham Canal  22–23 Nottingham City Police Force  3 Nottingham Climbers’ Club  95–97, 104, 109, 128, 130, 132, 135, 138, 144, 168, 170, 174, 191, 195, 197, 200, 249, 256, 257, 258, 310, 319, 388 Nottingham Council  88 Nottingham Education Committee  58, 69 Nottingham Evening Post (newspaper)  32, 58 Nottingham General Hospital  88, 94 Nottingham Goose Fair  68, 166 Nottingham great floods, 1947  15 Nottingham Guardian (newspaper)  32 Nottingham High School  43 Nottingham Ice Rink  15 Nottingham Journal (newspaper)  5 Nottingham Midland railway station  1 Nottingham Moderns Rugby Football Club  56, 57, 128, 388 Nottingham Mountaineering Club  249 Nottingham Police Athletic Club  54 Nottingham Post (newspaper)  129, 249 Nottingham race riots, 1958  58, 82 Nottingham RFC  34 Nottinghamshire AAA Youth Championships  56 Nottingham slum clearance  166

Nottingham Teacher Training College  165 Nottingham University  194, 260 Nottingham 1st YMCA Rover Crew  72 Nottingham 1st YMCA Scout Group  39 Notts County FC  2, 15 Novello, Oreste  80 Noyce, Wilfrid  63, 101, 111, 116, 125, 294 Number Seven, The (book)  1, 19, 215 Nunn, Paul  205, 294, 297, 298, 331, 335, 338, 340, 352 Nuptse  304, 306, 380, 388 Nuristan  186 Nuristani, Hindu Kush  176 Nutcracker Suite, Ranger Rock  236 O Observer, The (newspaper)  287 O’Connor, Bas  97 Odysseus  35, 148 Oeschinensee  73 Oetztal Alps  110 Offshore Island, The (play)  53 Ogre, The  348, 358–360, 388 Ogwen Valley  44 Ohtsuka, Hiromi  282, 283 Old Faithful  300 Old Man and the Sea, The (book)  35 Old Man of Hoy  223 Old Man of Storr, Isle of Skye  63, 205 Olivier, Laurence  24 Olson, James  242 Olympic Games  12, 56, 202 Om Mani Padme Hum  218 On the Beach (book)  53 On The Heights (book)  256 Open Book, Tahquitz  234 Opera House, Vienna  82 Operation Barbarossa  5 Orage, Alfred Richard  xiii Ordesa National Park, Spain  258–260, 259 Oread Mountaineering Club  77, 86, 95, 111 Orr, James  328 Orston Drive, Nottingham  35 Orwell, George  35 Osh, Kyrgyzstan  333 Ottoman Empire  169 Ouanoukrim  118 Ouarzazate  122 Outer Hebrides  204, 210 Outer Limits, Cookie Cliff  354 Outer Space, Eldorado Canyon  316 Outward Bound  42, 62, 236 Owen, Mr  56, 57 P Pacific Ocean Wall, El Capitan  354 Packard, Vance  202 Padarn Lake Hotel  278, 306 Paisley, John  226 Pajuka Pass  182 Pakistan  96, 175, 358, 358–360 Palmer, Brian  170, 186, 197, 198 Palmer, Mick  16 Pamir Knot  175 Pamirs  206, 326, 331–347, 352, 380 – tragedy 1974  342–347 Pangnirtung, Baffin  248, 257, 260–264, 266, 274, 297, 300, 319 Pangnirtung Fjord  260, 266 Pangnirtung Lodge  320 Pangnirtung Pass  257 Panjshir Valley  172, 175, 182, 186, 187 Paradise Wadi  157

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INDEX

Paragot, Robert  222 Park, The, Nottingham  138, 165 PAs, footwear  107, 109 Patey, Tom  143, 223, 225 Payne, Robin  55 Peak 19, Pamirs  337, 346, 380 Peak District  34, 43, 61, 62, 76, 92, 130, 143, 165, 237 Peak Nineteenth Party Congress  337 Pearl Harbour  5 Peck Crackers  236 Peck, Gregory  24 Peck, Trevor  92 Pegasus Caving Club  191 Pen-y-Gwryd hotel  111 Pen-y-Pass hotel  107 People’s Park, Berkeley  240–241 Perrins, Mrs  14 Pers Glacier  201 Pertemba, Sherpa ‘PT’  306, 364, 380 Peschiera  75 Peterson, Don  315 Petit Dru  233, 256 Pettigrew, Bob  43, 52, 57, 77, 79, 94, 95, 111, 128, 323 Peveril School  58 Pex Hill  225 Peyton, Ross  300 Phakding  287 Phantom Rib, Clogwyn y Grochan  197 Pharaoh, Wilson  71 Pheriche  364 Phu, Ang  302, 364, 370 Phurba, Ang  306, 370, 375 Pic Botoun  161 Pic Coolidge  89 Pic del Tajo de los Machos  113 Pick a Bale of Cotton (song)  29 Pico del Caballo  114 Pictorial Knowledge encyclopaedia (book)  35 Pic Toussidé  153 Pierre, Bernard  100 Piggott, A.S.  61 Pik Lenin, Pamirs  330, 331, 334, 335, 340, 352 Pink Floyd  231 Pinnacle Club  103 Piz Badile  63, 100, 104, 192, 200 Piz Bernina  200 Piz Palü  201 Pizzi Gemelli  100 Plague, the  37 Plan de l’Aiguille  80, 189 Plas y Brenin  44 Plum Buttress  63 Poe, Edgar Allan  35 Point Killabuk  270, 271 Poisoned Glen, Donegal  63, 174 Poland  331 Polaroid  182 Polar World, The (book)  271 Police Bulletin (magazine)  21 Polldubh Barn  59 Polliollok, Jok  297 Pollock, Bruce  356 Pompeii  162 Pontresina  200 Popkess, Captain Athelstan  3 Poppleston, Mick  68, 80, 108 Porteous, John  206 Porter, Charlie  312, 356 Port Fuad  53

Port Said  53 Potts, George  71 Pratt, Chuck  234, 236, 238, 240, 242, 246, 300, 354 Pravda (newspaper)  344 Prelude, The (poem)  80 Prince of Wales, Baslow  132 Principles of Physical Geography (book)  72 Proctor, Tom  210 Profumo scandal  129 Promontogno  100, 102 Public Schools Exploring Society  42 Pugh, Griffith  281 Pullen, Carol  68 Pumori  366 Punjab  140 Punta di Frida  135 Puri  327 Puttrell, J.W.  42 Q Quebec  Queen Elizabeth II coronation  Queen’s Grove  Queen’s Scout Certificate  Queen Victoria Cairn

260 32, 34, 222 1, 2, 15 59 97

R Rabat  118 Rabbits, Annette  86 Rab, island  75 Radcliffe, Chris  202 Radford Bridge Road  20, 22, 30 Radford Colliery  20, 49 Radford gasworks  7 Radford, Nottingham  92 Radford slum clearance  26 Rahman, Abdur  186 Railway Slab, Black Rocks  42 Raleigh Bicycle Company  12, 20, 49, 280 Raleigh Street  280 Rameswaram  327 Rampa, Lobsang (see Hoskin, Cyril)  77 Ranger Rock  236 Ras Dashen  147 Ras Ouanoukrim  118 Raven’s Tor  98 Rawalpindi  358 Rawlinson, Ken  319 Razdelnaya route  340, 342 Read, H.V.  219, 221 Read, Steve  105, 111, 112, 115, 120, 130, 143, 144, 168, 279, 298, 319 Reagan, Ronald  240, 241 Rébuffat, Gaston  100, 137 Rébuffat route, Aiguille du Midi  352 Recovery of Man in Childhood, The (book)  47 Rector, John  241 Red Cloud Ranch  300 Reed’s Pinnacle  241 Reich, Charles  269 Remaking the World (book)  82 Rempstone  92 Rempstone Wood  41 Renard, Benoit  345 Requin hut  77 Rhamani Glacier  321, 326 Ribbon Falls  356 Riber Castle  41 Rice-Davies, Mandy  129 Rice, Grantland  7, 209 Richards, Ronnie  342, 358, 370 Ridgeway, Rick  353

Rieder, Rik  354 Riefenstahl, Leni  200 Rikkyo University  281 Rimmon Mountaineering Club  250 Rimmon route, Troll Wall  253 Rio Arazas  258 Río Genil  115 Río Lanjarón  113 Río Valdecasillas  114 Roaches, The  138 Roaring Forty, Sail Rock  173, 174 Robbins, Liz  233, 242 Robbins, Royal  220, 222, 232–237, 238, 240, 241, 242, 245, 246, 312, 315, 354, 356 Roberts, David  xiii Robert Shaw Primary School  15, 28 Roberts, Jimmy  283, 284, 302, 308, 350 Robertson, Brian  206 Robin Hood Inn, Baslow  61 Robin Hood’s Cave, Stanage  132 Robinson, Doug  312 Robinson, Mrs  138 Robinson, Tom  67, 68 Roch, André  322 Rochefort Arête  109 Rock and Heather Club  95 Rock and Ice Club  71, 95, 109, 138, 143, 218, 224, 331 Rock and Snow, shop  277 Rock Climbs on the Mountain Limestone of Derbyshire (book)  143 Rock Island Climb (film)  223 Rocky Mountain National Park  315 Roland House, hostel  72 Rommel, Erwin  150, 152 Romsdal  252, 253 Romulus and Remus  35 Rope Boy (book)  221 Roper, Steve  238 Rosa Pinnacle  67 Rosedale, Dr Barney  300, 302, 304, 309, 350 Roskelley, John  332, 337, 342 Rousseau, Henri  243 Rover, The (comic)  28 Rowell, Galen  312 Rowland, Clive  331, 332, 334, 335, 358 Royal Air Force  2, 34, 61 Royal Army Medical Corps  194 Royal Artillery  5 Royal, Brian  249 Royal Geographical Society  129, 142 Royal Life Saving Society  76 Royal Navy  42 Royal Ordnance factory, Nottingham  175 Rudolph, Erich  204 Rudolph, Walter  204 rugby  34, 56–58, 61, 76, 94, 125, 147, 194 Rumi  388 RURPs  207, 250, 279 Russell, Bertrand  89 Russell, Johnny  43 Ruttledge, Hugh  324 S Sabratha  150 Safka, Melanie  274 Sagano, Hiroshi  283 Sahara, desert  122, 125, 126, 128, 138, 142, 144, 147, 150, 162, 193 Sail Rock  173, 174 Saint Bernard Pass  75, 162

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UP AND ABOUT

Sakhi Glacier  176 Sakhi river  180 Salang Tunnel  175 Salathé, John  234, 237 Salathé Wall, El Capitan  234, 238, 243, 244–247, 311 Saleki, Mischa  287 Salutation Inn, The  95, 144, 168 Salzburg  256 Samedan hospital  102 Sandhu, Balwant  322, 323 San Francisco (song)  201 Sanson, Great-Grandma  16 Sar-i Sang  176 Sassolungo  142 Satoh, Shigeru  282 Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (book)  20 Saukdara Glacier  335 Scafell  66, 70 Scafell Pike  70, 71 Schaller, Robert  316–317 Schlömmer, Leo  284 Schmuck, Marcus  333 Schneider, Horst  289, 291 Schneider, Michael  335 Sciora hut  100 Scoop, The, Strone Ulladale  231, 279 – first ascent 1969  207–209 Scotland  58–59, 73, 90, 97, 226–229, 292 Scots Guards  223 Scott, Brian (brother)  11, 14, 16, 21, 27, 28, 33, 37, 75, 88, 90, 108, 138 Scott, Captain Robert Falcon  42, 72, 149 Scott, Chic  351 Scott, Doug  33, 56, 70 – Absolute Order of Discharge  132 – adolescence  36–37 – Alps 1959  76–80 – Alps 1961  102–104 – Alps 1962  109–110 – Alps 1964  140–142 – Alps 1967  189–192 – Alps 1968  200–204 – athletics  54–56 – Atlas 1962  115–123 – baby show 1942  5 – Baffin Island 1971  260–274 – Baffin Island 1972  297–300 – Baffin Island 1973  298, 319–320 – Big Wall Climbing (book)  352 – Bonatti Pillar  202–204 – bouncer  217 – CBE  387 – Changabang 1974  320–327 – childhood  21–24, 26–28 168–171 – Cilo Dagı expedition  – Cima Ovest  210–213 – Corwen Magistrates’ Court  195 – cycle to Ingoldmells  32 – death of Mingma  364–365 – Dolomites 1963  135–137, 145 – Dolomites 1964  142 – early childhood  4–16 – early climbing  xii–xiii, 41–44, 61–64 – Everest 1975  349–351, 363–383 – Everest, autumn 1972  294–295, 300–309 – Everest bivouac  379–380 – Everest, spring 1972  284–293 – Everest summit  363, 378–379 – eyesight  29–28 – first Alps trip  72–75

– Gogarth  195–196, 197–199 – guiding  102–103, 110–111, 142 – hepatitis B  123, 125 – Hindu Kush  174–187 – Koh-i-Bandaka  177–180 – LSD trip  242–244 – new routes, Derwent Valley  97–98, 130–132 – North America 1975  352–357 – Norway  250–255 – Nose, El Capitan  311 – Nose, Strone Ulladale, first ascent  279 – Ogre recce, 1975  358–360 – oxygen problems, 1975  375 – Pamirs 1974  331–347 – paper round  36 – potato picking  36 – rugby  56–58 – Salathé Wall  244–247 – school  14–16, 28–30, 33, 49–51, 53–54, 67–68, 72 – Scoop 1969  207–209 – Scotland  58–59 – Scouts  37–41 – Spain 1962  112–115 – Strone Ulladale  231–232, 279–280 – Strone Ulladale 1969  205–210 – Switzerland 1961  98–102 – teacher training  76, 87, 92 – teaching  126–128, 129–130, 166, 191, 260 – Tibesti expedition  125, 128–129, 137–138, 138, 142, 147, 149–163 – ‘Warlock’  xii – wedding 1962  107–108 Scott, Douglas (photographer)  321 Scott, Garry (brother)  27, 75, 138, 165, 260 – christening  28 Scott, George (father)  2–4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12–14, 15, 16, 20, 21, 22, 25, 27, 29, 30–32, 34, 35, 36, 54, 55, 88, 94, 107, 148, 165, 166, 387, 388 – boxing  3, 12 – National Service  5–7 – recording family life  32 Scott, Grandma  2–3, 26, 32, 33 Scottish Daily Express (newspaper)  209, 210 Scottish Himalayan Expedition 1951  321 Scottish Mountaineering Club  257, 352 Scott, Joyce (mother)  1–2, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 25, 27, 29, 32, 33, 35, 37, 41, 165, 166, 387, 388 Scott, Martha (daughter)  309–310, 360, 385, 387 Scott, Michael (son)  135, 138, 142, 164–166, 191, 199, 200, 241, 249, 258, 293, 300, 308–310, 385, 387 Scott (née Brook), Janice  93, 98, 101, 104, 110, 137, 138, 142, 149, 164–166, 172, 194, 199–200, 219, 232, 238, 239, 249, 258, 260, 293, 294, 300, 308–310, 316, 352–353, 354, 357–358, 360, 385–387, 388 – pregnancy  128, 132–135 – teacher training  165, 191 – wedding 1962  107–108 Scott, Peter  202 Scouts  37–41, 42, 53, 57, 72, 81, 94, 95, 138, 148, 166, 193, 196, 234, 250, 292, 323, 388 Seagoon, Neddie  53

Sebha  162, 165 Secombe, Harry  53 Seigneur, Yannick  204 Sella Pass  142 Sellers, Peter  53 Sentinel Rock, Yosemite  234, 237 Setreng, Sigmund Kvaløy  255 Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (album)  194 Sgùrr Eilde Mòr  59 Shackleton, Sir Ernest  72, 149 Shakespeare, Bas  97 Shakespeare, William  ix, xvi, xix, 85, 215 Sharan  182, 184 Sharan Valley  176, 181, 182, 184 Shatayev, Elvira  343, 344, 345, 346 Shatayev, Vladimir  344 Shawangunks  231, 277, 277–278 Shaw, Mary  86 Sheffield  28, 93, 205 Sheldon, Dr William  87 Sher (kitchen boy, Hindu Kush)  180 Sherpa, Norbu  324 Sherrick, Mike  234 Sheriff of Nottingham  385 Shiprock, New Mexico  217 Shipton Col  321, 322, 323, 326 Shipton, Eric  70, 325 Shiva  328 Shockley’s Ceiling, Shawangunks  278 Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, A (book)  175 Shute, Nevil  53 Sibley, Paul  241 Sicily  162 Sickle Ledge, The Nose  311 Sidewinder, Strone Ulladale  279 Sidi Chamharouch  116 Sierra Club  218 Sierra Nevada, California  234, 240 Sierra Nevada, Spain  111, 112–115, 113, 125 Silent Spring (book)  202, 269 Sillitoe, Alan  20 Silloth  134 Simien Mountains  147 Simmons, John  171 Simon, Eddie  315 Simon, Paul  315 Simpson, Henry  55 Sinai Peninsula  194 Singapore  194 Singh, Ujagar  324 Siroua  122 Six-Day War  194 Six-Five Special (TV show)  54 Skardu  358 Skazar  176, 186 Skegness  32, 150 Skiddaw  70 Skillbeck, Mr  35 Small, Terry  96, 130, 132 Smedley’s Farm  61 Smith, Clive  40, 41, 43, 55, 56, 57, 94 Smith, Derek  279 Smith, Gordon ‘Speedy’  331, 335, 337, 340, 342 Smith, Harry  107 Smith, Mr  20 Smith, Shirley  107 Smith, Steve ‘Sid’  135, 140, 257, 263, 267, 270, 272 Smith, Tommie  202

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INDEX

Smith, Tony  56 Smoky Joe’s (café)  91, 115 Smythe, Frank  258 Sneinton  26 Snell Sports  77 Snively, Doug  315, 316, 353 Snowdon  44, 72, 111, 147, 197 Snowdon Biography (book)  63 Snowdonia & North Wales  132, 199, 218 Snow White  29 Soar, river  40 Soil Association  217 Solvay bivouac hut  135 Solway Firth  134 Somervell, Howard  193 Søndre Trolltind  232, 253 Sosbun Brakk  358 Sous le Toit ledge  246 Southampton  90, 91 Southampton Island  258 South Audley Street, London  192 South Col (book)  111 South Col, Everest  283, 309, 370 Southerness Point  134 South Ridge Direct, Cìr Mhòr  64 Soviet Sports Federation  331 Space Below My Feet (book)  102 Spartans  35 Spence, Kenny  206 Spider’s Web, Gogarth  223 Spigolo Giallo (Yellow Edge), Cima Piccola  135, 145 Spiral Stairs, Dinas Cromlech  94 Spooner, Graham  94 Sport and Recreation Alliance  249 Sprackling, Doctor  166 Spread Eagle, The  95 Sputnik  53 Squires, Tony  22, 32 S & S Builders  260 Stalk, The, Cheedale  63 Stanage Edge  xii, 92, 95, 132, 148, 225, 237 Stanford University  238 Stan (MA client)  110 Stannard, John  278 St Ann’s, Nottingham  26, 58 Stanton and Staveley ironworks  253 Stapleford Hill  24 Stark, Freya  149 Starlight and Storm (book)  100 Star-Spangled Banner (song)  202 Steck, Allen  237, 342, 343 Steck-Salathé, Sentinel Rock  237, 310 Steele, Peter  129 Stenson, John  68, 108 Stephen, Leslie  190 St Euphemia  75 St John Ambulance Association  76 St Louis  222 St Mark’s Square, Venice  81 St Moritz  200 Stob Choire Claurigh  59 Stonehenge  10 Stoneman Meadow Riot  242 Stoney Middleton  278 Stoppers  236 Storm and Sorrow (book)  346 Stormhaven tent  267, 289 Stove Leg cracks, The Nose  311 St Patrick’s Day  157, 174 Strange, Greg  338 Strang, Lindsey  350

Straughan, Paddy  56 Street, Jack  205 Strelley  11, 26 Strone Ulladale  188, 205–210, 223, 231–232, 279–280 Stroud, Dick  144, 186 Stroud, Geoff  59, 67, 71, 72, 76, 80, 82, 94, 108, 195 Stubai pegs  189 Sturney, Terence ‘Stengun’  41 Suez Crisis  52 Suigal Glacier  183, 184 Sultan (porter)  184 Summers, David  68 Summit Lake  257, 265, 267, 297, 298, 319 Summit Lake Pass  260 Sumner, Bill  317 Sunday Times, The (newspaper)  210 Sunset Boulevard  32 Sunset Slab, Froggatt  60 Sunshine, Monty  138 Sutton, Anne  62 Sutton Bonington Agricultural College  76 Sutton, Geoffrey  43, 62–63, 64, 100, 204, 232, 323 Sutton-in-Ashfield Police Training Centre  27 Sutton, Steve  312, 349, 350 Suva  169 Swallow’s Nest  317 ‘Swell’ dehydrated vegetables  76 Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research  256, 258 Switzerland  98–102, 200–201 Sykes, David ‘Ben’  100 Sylvester, Rick  206 Syringe, Gogarth  196 T Tadaft n’bou Imrhaz  118 Tahquitz  315 Tajos de la Virgen  113 Tamil Nadu  327 Tangiers  122 Tantum, Reece ‘Goose’  15 Tarbert  232 Tarso Tieroko  129, 149, 153, 155–161 Tarso Toon  153, 159, 161 Taylor, Colin  255 Taylor Peak, Colorado  353 Teach Your Children (song)  274 Teelin pier  172, 174 Tejada-Flores, Lito  221 Tengboche  308, 387 Terrace, Arthur  2 Terrain Roches Chaotiques  152, 162 Terray, Lionel  62, 104, 137 Territorial Army  132 Terry, Mick  130, 132, 175, 176, 181, 182, 184, 187, 193, 205, 207, 211 Tête Rousse hut  79 Tet Offensive  201 Texas Flake, The Nose  314 Thamel  308 That Was the Week That Was (TV show)  54 Thesiger, Wilfred  126, 129, 147, 151, 154, 156, 163 Thing, The, Dinas Cromlech  98 Third Eye, The (book)  77 Thompson, Mike  223, 375 Thompson, Peter  196, 205 Thoreau, Henry David  202 Thunderbird, The (ice axe)  317 Tibbu  153, 262

Tibesti Mountains  125, 128, 129, 137, 142, 147, 149–163, 151, 193 Tibet  182, 326 Tierra del Fuego  xv Tighe, Tony  308 Tigris river  168 Tilho, Jean  153 Tilman, W.H.  324–325 Times, The (newspaper)  72 Times They Are A-Changin’, The (song)  143 Timzguida  118 Tin Bridge  29 Tinsley Steelworks  332 Tirich Mir  175, 253 Tiso, Graham  301, 302, 303, 342 Tis-sa-ack, Half Dome  315 Tissington Station  109 Tizgui  120 Tizi n’bou Imrhaz  118 Tizi n’Ouagane pass  118 Tizi n’Ouanoums pass  117, 118 Tolstoy, Leo  xiv, 269 Tomlinson, Maude  4 Torino hut  109 Torla  258, 259 Toubkal  89, 91, 118, 192 – 1962 Bentley Beetham route  117, 119 Tour, Le  103 Tower Chimney, Stanage Edge  237 Towle, Mike  56 Tozal del Mallo  258–260, 261 Tramway du Mont Blanc  79 Tranter, Nigel  184 Tranter, Philip  184 Tre Cime di Lavaredo  124, 210 Treherbert  199 Trent Bridge  5 Trent Bridge Inn  138 Trent Lock  16 Trent, river  15, 92 Tricouni nails  42, 61 Trieste  75 Triglav Mountains  80 Triple Direct, El Capitan  311 Trisul  326 Triumph motorbike  96 Trivor  97, 101, 294 Troll Equipment  286 Troll Wall  250, 250–255, 252–253, 254 Trondheim  253 Trou au Natron  153, 161 Tryfan  44 Tuaregs  153 Tuck, Roddy  129 Tunis  162 Turkestan  50 Turkey  167, 168, 171, 174, 199 Turner, Beryl  86, 95, 197 Turner, Peter  56, 57, 94, 97 Turner, Roger  86, 95 Tutankhamun  176 Tweedale, Bill  250 Twilight, High Tor  143 Twin Otter  260 Twin Owls  316 Tyrol  241 U UEFA European Championship 1972  289 Uemura, Naomi  282, 284 Ullin, Chet  346 Ullin, Gary  337, 342, 346, 380

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DOUG SCOTT

Born to a lower-middle-class family in Nottingham in 1941, Doug Scott began climbing in Derbyshire when he was thirteen and without any obvious plan in it was soon discovering the cliffs of Snowdonia, Scotland, the Alps and the Dolomites. He completed his first Alpine season at the age of eighteen. In 1965, aged twenty-three, he went on his first organised expedition, to the Tibesti Mountains of Chad. It was to be the first of many trips to the high mountains of the world. On 24 September 1975, he and his climbing partner Dougal Haston became the first Britons to reach the summit of Mount Everest and they became national heroes. In total, Scott has made forty-two expeditions to the high mountains of Asia, reaching the summits of forty peaks. With the exception of his ascent of Everest, he has made all his climbs in lightweight or alpine style and without the use of artificial oxygen. Scott was made a CBE in 1994. He is a former president of the Alpine Club, and in 1999 he received the Royal Geographical Society Patron’s Gold Medal. In 2011 he was awarded the Piolets d’Or Lifetime Achievement award, during the presentation of which his mountaineering style was described as ‘visionary’. In 1995 he founded Community Action Nepal (CAN), a UK-based registered charity which aims to help mountaineers support the mountain people of Nepal. Scott continues to climb, write and lecture, avidly supporting the work of CAN.

946h VP Up and About_OFC.indd 1

As darkness fell, Scott and Haston scraped a small cave in the snow 100 metres below the summit and survived the highest bivouac ever – without bottled oxygen, sleeping bags and, as it turned out, frostbite. For Doug Scott, it was the fulfilment of a fortune-teller’s prophecy given to his mother: that her eldest son would be in danger in a high place with the whole world watching. Scott and Haston returned home national heroes with their image splashed across the front pages. Scott went on to become one of Britain’s greatest ever mountaineers, pioneering new climbs in the remotest corners of the globe. His career spans the golden age of British climbing from the 1960s boom in outdoor adventure to the new wave of lightweight alpinism throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In Up and About, the first volume of his autobiography, Scott tells his story from his birth in Nottingham during the darkest days of war to the summit of the world.

‘At its finest moments climbing allows me to step out of ordinary existence into something extraordinary, stripping me of my sense of self-importance.’

Surviving the unplanned bivouac without oxygen near the summit of Everest widened the range of what and how he would climb in the future. In fact, Scott established more climbs on the high mountains of the world after his ascent of Everest than before. Those climbs will be covered in the second volume of his life and times.

ISBN 9 7 8 1 9 1 0 2 4 0 4 1 0

9 7 81910 240410 > Front cover: Dougal Haston on the south summit of Everest, 1975. Photo: Doug Scott Author photo: Chris Bonington.

At dusk on 24 September 1975, Doug Scott and Dougal Haston became the first Britons to reach the summit of Everest as lead climbers on Chris Bonington’s epic expedition to the mountain’s immense south-west face.

Vertebrate Publishing, Sheffield www.v-publishing.co.uk

THE HARD ROAD TO EVEREST £24.00

21/10/2015 12:33


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