In reply to Tyler: Youre right about the Andy Perkins swop for kiwi Dave. Also I agree with you that we shouldn't get carried away with British Mountaineering achievements as Slovenian, Czech, Polish, French, etc are often as impressive. However I think we do stand up favourably in recent years. As an exercise I took the death of MacIntyre in 1982 as the artificial end of the "golden age" of British Mountaineering that you referred to, and then looked at significant ascents over the last 20 years. Picking just one from each year in many years was often very difficult from many possibilities. Any way I hope the list illustrates the scale of British Achievements through these "Barren decades".
1982: SW Buttress Bhagirathi III, 1400m hard classic – Bob Barton and Allen Fyffe,
1983: Lobsang Spire, cutting edge “big wall” new route – Doug Scott and Pete Thexton, on same trip Broad Peak alpine style – Roger Baxter Jones, Andy Parkin, Al Rouse
1984: Ganesh II SW face, f.a. alpine style 8 days Nick Kekus and Rick Allen
1985: ? Can't think at mo'
1986: Kantega, new route, Alison Hargreaves with US superstars.
1987: Golden Pillar of Spantik, made Fowlers reputation, Mick Fowler, Vic Saunders
1988: Everest, new route Kangshung Face, amongst the finest ascents on a mountain of many amazing ascents, Stephen Venables to summit
1989: Raven Peak, all free E4 super rock route, Pat Littlejohn and Mick Hardwick
1990: Rocky Aksu, new route on testpiece peak of USSR mountaineering, Fowler and Steve Sustad
1991: Alps, mega season with almost free ascents (all 1000m+ E6s) of Divine Providence, American Directissima on Dru and The Fisch, Andy Cave Paul Jenkinson
1992: Central Tower Paine, new route bold clean aid, Paul Pritchard and Sean Smith
1993 Walker Spur, all free winter solo in 8hrs, Stevie Haston
1994: Cerro Torre, new route wins Piolet D’Or, Andy Parkin with Francois Marsigny
1995: Everest “solo”, K2, Alison Hargreaves
1996: Nalumarsortoq new route 800m Fr7a, Twid Turner, Louise Thomas
1997: Changabang F.a N Face, amongst finest alpine style routes ever, Andy Cave and Brendon Murphy
1998: Amin Brakk F.a N face 5.11 A3+ Twid, Steve Mayers, Elfyn Jones, Dai Lampard
1999: Poincenot, Guillamet 1st winter ascents, Andy Kirkpatrick, Paul Ramsden, Nick Lewis, Jim Hall
2000: Mt Tiedermann, f.a. of massive S Pillar, Dore Green and Simon Richardson
2001: Ama Dablam f.a. NW ridge, 12 days alpine style last 2 no food, Jules Cartwright, Rich Cross
2002: Utta, 2 new routes N face (Scottish VII) Al Powell and Owen Samuels, NW Face astonishing solo Nick Bullock