The veteran Himalayan mountaineer (70 next year) and now indefatigable fundraiser for his Nepalese charity, Doug Scott, held a packed audience spellbound at the Royal Geographical Society in Kensington last week describing the moment he was swept from west ridge of K2, second only to Everest in height but far more dangerous. ‘I thought, this is the first time I have been in an avalanche,’ he said. ‘And then I thought, I am going to die.’ He added he felt very serene. Scott had already endured the world’s highest bivouac, without tent or sleeping bag, just below the summit of Everest, and the year before in Pakistan’s Karakoram crawled down the Ogre with two broken legs. So he’s not a man to take lightly. In the event he landed on his back and his massive pack stopped him in the snow. His rope snapped which ironically saved his life. His partner Nick Estcourt was dragged away to his death.
Scott was taking part in a discussion organised by Intelligence Squared looking at whether the intense activity around Everest, and especially commercial expeditions, are killing the spirit of adventure. Times have changed massively since Scott became the first Briton to climb Everest in 1975. These days, the electricity supply at base camp is a lot more reliable than it is in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, and climbers can watch television in comfort while acclimatising. Everest’s not really a place to go if you don’t like crowds, and were he alive today, George Mallory would have a blog, updated daily from his communications pod at base camp, said one of the RGS speakers, journalist and climber Ed Douglas.
There were a lot of City boys at the RGS, and an Everest ascent now fits a kind of personal development agenda. Rebecca Stephens, the first British woman to the summit in 1993, joked that soon Everest would be an elective module on an MBA. Maybe not that much of a joke. By then the grandstanders will have moved on, perhaps to K2 and that implacable peak will get easier with miles of fixed ropes, oxygen and so forth. Far-fetched probably, though K2 would be one hell of an entry on your CV at JP Morgan.
Business and sport, especially adventure sport, are uneasy partners. Business hates uncertainty, certainly of the kind that was meat and drink to Scott. That’s why, rightly, safety is everything for the commercial expeditions. But consequently Everest is no longer the voyage into the unknown experienced by the grizzled veterans at the RGS. They were hunting something wilder and grander than a plump balance sheet. That pure passion is maybe something that other sportsmen, some currently doing their business in South Africa, would do well to adopt and cherish.
Elsewhere, apologies are in order. Writing in this space a couple of weeks ago, I singled out Spain’s del Bosque, Italy’s Lippi, and our very own Capello, as the outstanding coaches at the World Cup. Hmm. So in a Rooney-esque style of self-laceration, sorry about that, though it is still early doors. However I did also point out that Serbia and Uruguay could spring the odd surprise, and that there was nothing more compelling on the planet than the soap opera that is Diego Maradona. So maybe that’s honours about even. Other miscellaneous highlights: Fernando Torres’s new brutalist haircut; Gabby Logan’s mesmerising assortment of tops as she does moody pieces to camera from the veldt; and, pick of the tournament, Robbie Savage commentating for Radio 5, the best speaker since Cicero and miles funnier.
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