GENERAL LECTURES
ENCHANTED ISLAND
IN SHACKLETON’S STEPS ACROSS SOUTH GEORGIA
South Georgia will forever be associated with the polar explorer
Sir Ernest Shackleton. In 1916 he and five companions made one
of the most remarkable open boat journeys of all time, 850 miles
from Elephant Island, to make a miraculous landfall on South
Georgia’s uninhabited south coast. Three of the men then had to
continue on foot, crossing thirty miles of unknown, unmapped
glacial mountains, with no mountaineering equipment, before they
could reach the whaling station of Stromness. Only then could
they summon a rescue for their 22 companions left on Elephant
Island after the expedition ship, Endurance, was crushed by the
Antarctic ice.
Shackleton’s odyssey remains one of the greatest escape stories
of all time and has now been made into a remarkable giant screen
film which opened to great acclaim in February 2001 and will be
coming to British IMAX theatres in October 2001. To put
Shackleton’s journey in a modern context for the film, Stephen
Venables followed Shackleton’s route across South Georgia with
the outstanding American climber, Conrad Anker, and the
legendary Tyrolean, Reinhold Messner. Retracing Shackleton’s
steps, seeing first hand the wild landscape he had crossed, the
three modern mountaineers were astounded at what Shackleton had
achieved in 1916.
Stephen Venables’s stunning new slideshow recounts the story of
his 2000 journey and the making of the IMAX film. Into this
recent adventure, he also weaves threads from his earlier 1990
expedition to South Georgia, when he explored the virtually
unknown southern end of the island, making the first ascent of
Mt Carse after sheltering for 21 days in an ice cave.
Eight hundred miles by ship from the Falkland Islands, set right
in the path of the storms which blast their way round the ocean
fringing Antarctica, South Georgia is one of the most wild and
remote places on earth. Yet even here, Man has made his impact:
first hunting seals, then establishing the whaling stations
which flourished for the first half of the twentieth century; it
was here too that the first shots of the Falklands War were
fired in 1982. The crashed helicopters and the old flensing
decks are now decaying relics and the fur seals are flourishing
once more, thronging the beaches alongside millions of penguins
and huge colonies of albatrosses. Even the whales are beginning
to return.
This glorious combination of mountain, sea and wildlife, with
icebergs crowding the horizon, makes South Georgia a place of
enchantment. Stephen Venables’s highly acclaimed photos capture
that haunting beauty. His gifts as a storyteller bring alive the
South Georgia’s history, his own modern adventures on the island
and the unsurpassable story of what Shackleton and his brave
companions achieved in 1916.
EVEREST WITHOUT OXYGEN
A NEW ROUTE UP THE WORLD’S HIGHEST PEAK
In 1988 Stephen Venables hit the news headlines when he became
the first Briton to climb Everest without using bottled oxygen.
His route to the summit - an extremely difficult new line up the
notorious Kangshung Face in Tibet - was achieved by a minimal
team of four climbers, without the support of high altitude
porters or oxygen equipment. This is a moving story about the
art of the possible, about achieving success against huge odds,
about pushing mind and body to the limit of endurance; but it is
also about the fun and excitement, the companionship and the
sheer beauty of climbing on the world’s highest mountain.
EVEREST
EIGHTY YEARS OF HUMAN ENDEAVOUR
In 1988 Stephen Venables hit the headlines when he reached the
summit of Everest alone, without oxygen, after completing a
spectacularly difficult new route up the East Face. In this
lecture he puts his ascent in the context of seventy five years’
exploration, starting with the first British attempt on the
world’s highest peak in 1921. Drawing on extensive archive
material, Venables tells the story of the heroic early attempts,
the tragic disappearance of Mallory and Irvine, the political
changes after World War II resulting in Eric Shipton’s
reconnaissance of the Nepal side, the thrilling success of 1953,
the disputed Chinese ascents and the prolonged siege of the
great South-West Face. He concludes with a personal look at the
astonishing feats of recent years, starting with Messner’s and
Habeler’s historic oxygenless ascent in 1978. Finally he
contrasts the recent mass ‘guided’ climbs with his own
experience, pushing the limits with an unsupported four man team
on the gigantic East Face.
A SLENDER THREAD
NARROW ESCAPE IN THE HIGH HIMALAYA
The Indian-British Panch Chuli Expedition was a huge success.
Led by Harish Kapadia and Chris Bonington, the team made several
first ascents on the five Chulis of Hindu mythology - the
cooking hearths where the legendary Pandavas made their last
camp before passing to heaven.
The British climbers were the first Westerners allowed into the
range for forty years. It was a very special opportunity to
explore this magical corner of the Kumaon Himalaya, an area of
lush forest and elegant snow peaks, described by the Scottish
explorer Bill Murray as ‘the most beautiful mountains in the
world’.
The 1992 expedition culminated in exploration of a previously
untouched valley. At the eleventh hour, just as the Monsoon was
approaching from the south, five climbers made a lightning dash
to the virgin summit of Panch Chuli V - a difficult, remote
peak, 21,000 feet above sea level, guarded by a complex maze of
dangerous icefalls.
Disaster struck as the team was committed, far from help, on the
last day of the expedition. During the descent an abseil anchor
ripped, plunging Stephen Venables 300 feet down the mountain. By
some miracle he was not killed. However, both his legs were
broken, leaving him in a very vulnerable position at 20,000
feet.
In a dramatic rescue, his companions lowered him a thousand feet
to a precarious campsite, where he had to wait four hungry days
until an Indian Airforce helicopter could negotiate the
dangerously enclosed valley and make a very risky landing to
lift him to safety.
This dramatic tale of success and near tragedy in the Himalaya,
illustrated with stunning colour pictures, was the subject of
Stephen Venables’s most recent and highly acclaimed book, A
Slender Thread.
HIMALAYAN ODYSSEY
The first Briton to climb Everest without oxygen highlights
eighteen years Himalayan expeditioning, from Afghanistan to
Tibet. Most of Stephen Venables’ expeditions have been to
previously unclimbed peaks or unexplored valleys. His first
ascents include stunning peaks in Kishtwar, Kumaon, Hunza and
Sola Khumbu; the approaches range from arid desert to dense
jungle. In this fascinating slideshow he presents his own
adventures in the light of modern ‘alpine-style’ climbing - the
subject of his and Andy Fanshawe’s recent book, ‘Himalaya
Alpine-Style’, which won the Grand Prize at the Banff
International Mountain Literature Festival.
MOUNTAINS OF THE FAR SOUTH
Stephen Venables is drawn increasingly to the mountains fringing
the Southern Ocean. In this stunning slideshow he contrasts
expeditions to the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia, the
haunting wilderness of Tierra del Fuego and the unique mountains
of Southern Africa. There is something here for everyone -
ocean, desert and forest; Antarctic wildlife, temperate
rainforest and the floral exuberance of the Cape; sailing,
skiing, canyoning and, of course, climbing - from the ice
meringue summits of Sarmiento to the glorious, hot rockclimbing
of South Africa and Namibia.
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