Stephen Venables

Stephen Venables (born 1954 in London ) is a British climber and writer. He stands at the time of the "South Georgia Association " and was formerly President of the Alpine Club.

Mountaineer

1988 Venables was the first Briton who ascended the Mount Everest without bottled oxygen. His rise was done on a ( up to the South Col ) new route through the Kangshung wall from the east Tibet, which he undertook without Sherpa support with only three other climbers, the Americans Robert Anderson and Ed Webster and the Canadian Paul Teare. Reached all four of the Kangshung face the South Col, but Teare decided to descend on suspicion of altitude sickness. The other three tried their hand at the summit of the 1953 Hillary route, but Anderson and Webster looked at the South Summit forced to turn back. Meanwhile Venables went to the summit and reached him late in the afternoon around 15:40 clock. Because he descended late, he decided to high up to a free bivouac at 8600 meters, instead of exposing themselves in the darkness to the risk of a crash. Anderson and Webster spent the night in an abandoned tent of a Japanese expedition. At dawn, Anderson and Webster went back to the mountain to search for Venables, who was almost frozen to death. The image that they made from the half-frozen, eisbehängten and frightened Venables, is considered an icon of the dangers on Everest. Anderson and Webster busy Venables again and led him down to their own tents on the South Col.

On the South Col they had thought about that yet, may be easier and better to descend into the valley of silence, the Western QWM, to Nepal to the west, given its battered state, but it refrained because they were not sure whether this late in the season to the normal route other climbers and their tents were available - their radios did not work. The prospect of having to climb under circumstances without the help of others through the Khumbu Icefall, let them then decide to go down again on her own, highly dangerous route Kangshung wall to Tibet. They needed another three days to come down the wall again in an incredibly difficult descent through avalanches, fog and cold. This included a reversal of the night back in one of the hundreds of meters higher wall stock, because there is some extremely crevasses - risk area was too dangerous for the further descent in the dark. The three climbers suffered severe frostbite; Webster had the most to suffer.

Venables ' other Himalayan first ascents opened new routes in the Hindu Kush (1977 ), Kishtwar Shivling (1983 ), Solu Tower (1987 ), the southwest of Kusum Kanguru (1991) and the Panch Chuli V ( 1992). During the descent from the Panch Chuli V, Venables broke his legs in a crash than a Abseilanker failed; thanks to his Indian and British teammate and thanks to the Indian Air Force, he was rescued. From this expedition Slender Thread and Victor Saunders ' No Place to Fall was reported in his book A. Venables also made Erstanstiege in Peru, Bolivia, Patagonia and South Georgia. He appeared in several documentary programs of the BBC and in the IMAX film Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure.

Life

On June 6, 1991 Venables became a father; his son Ollie was born. When Ollie Venables at the age of two years was diagnosed with autism and leukemia when he was four years old. Ollie was thus the only known child in the UK, who suffered both autism and leukemia. After several cancer-free years, a brain tumor, where he at the age of 12 years, on 16 October 2003, died at Ollie developed. His life was the subject of the tenth book by Venables, Ollie, which was first published in 2006.

Stephen Venables now lives with his wife Rosie and his son Edmond in Bath.

Author

In 1986, he won the Boardman Tasker - Prize for his first book, Painted Mountains: Two Expeditions to Kashmir.

The price of the best climbers book - Mountain Literature at the 2007 Banff Mountain Book Festival went to Venables for his book Higher Than the Eagle Soars: A Path to Everest ( Higher than the eagle and see - a way to Everest ). "