UKC

Monday 21 November - Chester, Grosvenor Museum
Stories of mountaineering’s wild men and songs inspired by them

Wirral ‘Troubadour’ Dean Johnson – an out and out success at the Mountain Arts Festival – presents Wild Mountain Times at The Grosvenor Museum in Chester. A unique evening of songs and a compendium of breath-taking, witty and outrageous stories featuring some of mountaineering’s greatest heroes – Cheshire born George Mallory (“Because it’s there”) and Sandy Irvine, Don Whillans, Sir Chris Bonington, Dougal Haston, Doug Scott. Plus anti-hero Aleistair Crowley (“The ordinary man looking at a mountain is like an illiterate person confronted with a Greek manuscript”).

Legendary mountaineer, Doug Scott CBE will be making a rare appearance in Chester as part of the performance. Doug, who has stood atop the world’s seven highest summits and of whom it has been said “Forget Bear Grylls! This guy has made it his life's mission to push the boundaries of human capability.” (The Daily Telegraph), will be speaking in graphic and humorous detail about survival of two of the coldest bivouacs imaginable.

Just below the summit of Everest at 28,700 feet Doug and Dougal Haston survived the night at minus 40° centigrade - without a tent, sleeping bags or oxygen and, as it happens, without frostbite. Two years later, after summiting The Ogre in the Karakorum, Pakistan, with Chris Bonington, Doug broke both legs just above the ankles on the first abseil. They had to bivouac without any warm insulated clothing at 23,500 feet. Running out of food, Doug eventually crawled down the glacier and moraine on his hands and knees. Chris broke his ribs abseiling off the end of a rope, eventually contracting pneumonia. In all it took them eight days to reach a place where they could be rescued – and the epic did not end there. Doug will also narrate excerpts from the Mallory and Irvine musical biography Ice Picks and Violets.

Proceeds from the evening will support the work of Community Action Nepal (Registered charity No. 1067772) founded by Scott and mountaineering friends 21 years ago. Sir Chris Bonington is CAN’s very active Patron. The charity works with poor communities located in remote Middle Hills of Nepal and along the mountainous border with Tibet. CAN is working tirelessly to raise much needed funds to help with the reconstruction of health posts, schools and porter rescue shelters following the devastating Nepal earthquakes of 2015. The evening will include a sale of Nepalese goods, Christmas cards, posters, signed framed mountain prints and Doug will also be signing copies of volume one of his autobiography ‘Up And About’.

Date and time: Monday 21st November at 7pm (doors open 6.30pm)
Venue: The Grosvenor Museum, 27 Grosvenor Street, Chester, CH1 2DD
Tickets £14.50.
For further information or to reserve a ticket call: 07539 371925 / 01768 484842.
Or book online: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wild-mountain-times-tickets-27885240505