On Tuesday 12 September 2006 nine members of the Cranleigh Sixth Form, including all six members of the School’s Tom Avery Society Committee, and two members of Common Room attended a lecture at the Alpine Club, London to hear Mick Fowler speak.

 

The occasion was hugely enjoyed by them all and it was an extraordinary privilege to be in an audience of a mere 80 to listen to one of the UK’s leading Himalayan climbers. The audience included several people who have made British first ascents, many who have climbed Everest and George Band, who was on Everest in 1953.

 

The President, Stephen Venables, who was the first Britain to climb Everest without supplementary oxygen in 1988, mentioned the Cranleigh group from the front, in his introduction and in his words of conclusion. On both occasions he did so in an extremely positive light. They were then spoken to by both Mick Fowler and Stephen afterwards to thank them for coming.

Today Mick Fowler is widely recognized as the first ascentionist of countless high-standard rock and ice climbs which he has been making all over Britain for the last 20 years. Mick is also acknowledged to be Britian’s pre-eminent adventure climber with a reputation for forcing technical and adventurous climbs in remote situations where extreme commitment is required.

Mick’s theme for his presentation was the title of his most recent book, On Thin Ice. The mountaineer is always seeking challenges that are interesting and memorable, but that are never too far beyond their own limits as this would put them on ice that is too thin and so introduce risks that are too high.

 

We were taken on a grand tour of some of his adventures from the past five years. These included scaling gorges in the Moroccan desert, climbing chalk sea stacks off the Normandy coast, ascending Changabang in the Indian Himalaya by a new route and an unclimbed peak in Chinese Tibet. Every tale was regaled with enormous enthusiasm, spiced with humour and tinged with understatement. Also, ‘things’ seems to happen to Mick and his climbing partners, involving several near misses and one very sad tragedy. His point that mountaineers are forever ‘on thin ice’ was graphically illustrated.

 

PVP