Stephen Venables
{{Short description|British mountaineer and writer}}
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Stephen Venables (born 2 May 1954) is a British mountaineer and writer, and is a past president of the South Georgia Association and of the Alpine Club. He is the first Briton to ascend the summit of Mount Everest without bottled oxygen.
Mountaineer
In 1988, Venables became the first Briton to ascend the summit of Mount Everest without bottled oxygen. His ascent, as far as the South Col, was by a new route up the Kangshung Face from Tibet, with just three other climbers, Americans Robert Anderson and Ed Webster, and Canadian Paul Teare. All four reached the South Col but Teare decided to descend from here, concerned about incipient altitude sickness. The other three continued up the final section of the normal 1953 route, but Anderson and Webster were forced to turn back at the South Summit. Meanwhile, Venables reached the summit alone, at 3.40 pm.{{cite book | last = Unsworth | first = Walt
| title = Everest, The Mountaineering History
| publisher = Mountaineers Books | year = 2000 | location = Seattle, WA, USA
| pages = 503 | isbn = 978-0-89886-670-4 }} Descending late in the day, he decided to bivouac in the open at about 8,600 metres, rather than risk a fall by continuing in the dark. Anderson and Webster spent the night slightly lower in an abandoned Japanese tent. In the morning all three were reunited and continued down to their own tents on the South Col. It took them a further three days to complete an epic retreat down the Kangshung Face. All three climbers suffered some frostbite, with Webster affected worst.
Venables's other Himalayan first ascents include new routes in the Hindu Kush (1977), Kishtwar Shivling (1983), Solu Tower (1987), the south-west ridge of Kusum Kanguru (1991) and Panch Chuli V (1992). During the descent from Panch Chuli V Venables broke both his legs in a fall, when an abseil anchor failed; thanks to his Indian and British teammates and the Indian Air Force, he was rescued. This expedition was recorded in his book A Slender Thread and in Victor Saunders's No Place to Fall. He has also made first ascents in Peru, Bolivia, Patagonia and South Georgia. He has appeared in several BBC television documentaries and the IMAX film Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure. He is currently president of the South Georgia Association and is a past President of the Alpine Club.
Personal life
Venables was educated at Charterhouse School and New College, Oxford, where he studied English language and literature, and was a member of the Oxford University Mountaineering Club.{{cite web |last1=Venables |first1=Stephen |title=Stephen Venables |url=https://uk.linkedin.com/in/stephen-venables-88210519?original_referer= |publisher=Linked in |access-date=27 May 2023}} His son, Ollie (born June 1991), was diagnosed with autism aged two and leukaemia aged four. After several cancer-free years, he developed a brain tumour and died, aged twelve years old.Venables, Stephen. Ollie: The True Story of a Brief and Courageous Life, Hutchinson, 2006, {{ISBN|009947879X}}
Awards and honors
- 1986 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature, Painted Mountains: Two Expeditions to Kashmir
- 1996 Banff Mountain Book Festival (Grand Prize), Himalaya Alpine-Style: The Most Challenging Routes on the Highest Peaks
- 2007 Banff Mountain Book Festival (Best Book – Mountain Literature), Higher Than the Eagle Soars: A Path to Everest.[https://web.archive.org/web/20080312135953/http://www.banffcentre.ca/mountainculture/festivals/2007/book/awards.asp Awards] at banffcentre.ca
Books by Venables
- Painted Mountains: Two Expeditions to Kashmir, Mountaineers Press, 1987, ({{ISBN|0898861365}})
- Everest, Kangshung Face, Pan, 1991, ({{ISBN|0330315595}})
- Island at the Edge of the World: South Georgian Odyssey, Hodder and Stoughton, 1991, ({{ISBN|0340556005}})
- Everest – Alone at the Summit, Odyssey, 1996, ({{ISBN|0952937506}})
- (with Andy Fanshawe) Himalaya Alpine Style: The Most Challenging Routes on the Highest Peaks, Baton Wicks, 1999, ({{ISBN|1898573395}})
- A Slender Thread: Escaping Disaster in the Himalaya, Arrow, 2001, ({{ISBN|0099279061}})
- To the Top: The Story of Everest, Walker, 2004, ({{ISBN|1844287254}})
- Everest – Summit of Achievement Bloomsbury 2003 ({{ISBN|0747562237}})
- Ollie: The True Story of a Brief and Courageous Life, Hutchinson, 2006, ({{ISBN|009947879X}})
- Voices from the Mountains, Reader's Digest, 2006, ({{ISBN|076210810X}})
- (with Chris Bonington) Meetings with Mountains: Remarkable Face-to-face Encounters with the World's Peaks, Cassell, 2006, ({{ISBN|1844034496}})
- Higher Than the Eagle Soars: A Path to Everest, Random House, 2007, ({{ISBN|0091795613}})
See also
References
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External links
- [http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=2572 Venables interviewed on UKClimbing.com]
- [http://www.everest1953.co.uk/stephen-venables Mount Everest Interview with Stephen Venables]
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Category:Boardman Tasker Prize winners
Category:English mountain climbers
Category:British mountain climbers
Category:Presidents of the Alpine Club (UK)
Category:British summiters of Mount Everest
Category:Alumni of New College, Oxford
Category:People educated at Charterhouse School