Sir Chris Bonington led this historic expedition in 1975 and the ascent of Mount Everest by Doug Scott and Dougal Haston via the notoriously difficult South West Face is recognised as one of the monumental landmarks in British mountaineering. At this special event in Oxford ‘Tut’ Braithwaite and John Porter will reflect on the expedition’s challenges, triumphs, tragedy and enduring legacy. The event will be anchored by Julie Summers and the input from the speakers will be accompanied by rare footage from the expedition and recorded interviews with Sir Chris and other expedition members.

CAN merchandise will be on sale, with drinks available under the shadow of T Rex in this beautiful museum in Oxford.

All proceeds from this event will support Community Action Nepal and will help fund Doug’s continuing humanitarian legacy in Nepal.

The speakers

Paul ‘Tut’ Braithwaite: Tut is one the best mountaineers of his generation and was a close friend of Doug from 1966 until Doug’s death in 2020. He was a prolific alpinist and made the first ascent of the East Pillar of Mount Asgard in 1972 followed by the ascent of Pik Lenin in 1974 by its south-east spur. With Nick Escourt in the 1975 Everest SW Face expedition they overcame some immense technical challenges on almost vertical rock on the Yellow Band which had defeated 5 previous expeditions. This was the key to the success of the expedition and enabled Doug Scott, Dougal Haston, Pertemba Sherpa and Pete Boardman to reach the summit. Doug’s biographer Catherine Moorhead states that Tut and Nick ‘put up one of the greatest climbs in mountaineering history’. Tut was the President of the Alpine Club from 2007-10 and has been a CAN Trustee since 2000.

John Porter: John is an American by birth and has been described as the ‘Climber’s climber’. He was also a good friend of Doug’s. Using alpine style climbing tactics he was part of the generation of climbers that pushed themselves to the limits. John climbed the NE face of Bandaka with Voytek Kurtyka and Alex MacIntyre (1977), the south buttress of Changabang (1978), the south face of Ranrapulka (1979) and the SE ridge of Tarke Kang (1982) with Alex MacIntyre. He was President of the Alpine Club from 2017-2019 and helped set up the Mountain Heritage Trust of which he is now a patron. His 2014 biography of Alex MacIntyre, ‘One Day as a Tiger’, won the Grand Prize for mountain literature at the Banff Mountain Festival in 2014 and is a worldwide best seller. John is also an award-winning poet and film-maker.

£20