UKH

Thought you'd heard everything about that infamous 1977 expedition? This short, beautifully presented account from Doug Scott himself stands apart from the traditional long-winded Himalayan epic, says Natalie Berry.

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In reply to UKC/UKH Gear:

Does it include a Coda explaining what he, Bob Pettigrew and the rest of the BMC 30 actually want?

In reply to UKC/UKH Gear:

I never knew that he crawled down the ogre. Amazing. Some how I must have missed it.

In reply to UKC/UKH Gear:

This old goat has been milked that many times, you'd have thought it would have dried up years ago, but obviously not?

In reply to galpinos:


FFS.......

In reply to Goucho:


Yes, Judging by Natalie's review, it seems not.

In reply to Goucho:

Tbh I've only seen Doug Scott's talk about Everest and haven't read Bonnington's account, so I'll be buying this book. I enjoyed reading his Everest book. Surprised he's waited so many years to write a proper book on the subject. First part of the book sounds interesting as well.

In reply to bouldery bits:

I think it's been mentioned once or twice...every page refresh...for the past year.

In reply to UKC/UKH Gear:

Sounds good.

Some disappointingly disrespectful posts here bearing in mind Doug has done more impressive climbing than 99.9% of ukc forumites will ever do and also done a lot more to help the people of Nepal.

In reply to mountain.martin:

Bob Pettigrew's MONC was disappointingly disrespectful too, and considerably more destructive than the odd mild little dig on here.

In reply to mountain.martin:



Not disrespectful to either Doug or his superb list of climbing achievements and his equally impressive altruistic work in Nepal, just a few light hearted digs at how long, and how much mileage this story has done over the decades.

In reply to mountain.martin:


I kneel to no man in the respect I have for Doug Scott as a climber, a mountaineer and a humanitarian.

This doesn't make him a natural storyteller though and, since the point of the book is to tell a story, it's on that alone which it must be judged: and Doug Scott is not a natural storyteller.

T.

In reply to mountain.martin:



Try not to take the internet too seriously.

In reply to Pursued by a bear:

Has anyone read the new book? Much as I appreciate Doug Scott's achievements and found him good company on the couple of occassions we've met, I found his Everest book close to boring - not the stories but the style of writing. Is the new book in the same style ? (I enjoyed his Shishmapanga book but I've no idea which bits were from Doug and which from Alex Macintyre).

In reply to bouldery bits:

Thank you Mr bits, or can i call you bouldery? I don't take it that seriously but when you see a bunch of people having digs at an 76 year old man on a forum that he might be reading (although I imagine he's got better things to do with his time) it doesn't do any harm to put across an opposing view.

Nice to hear that most posters have a lot of respect for his achievements but that wasn't at all clear from the early posts.

In reply to Doug:

My copy arrived this morning and I have read quite a bit of it already. Having heard on here what Doug Scott is like as a lecturer I was not expecting to be blown away by his literary style, but I did want to read this story, since it has always captured my imagination. So far so good. Interesting detail of the amazing climb and descent, on the internal dynamics of the expedition and on the historical background of the region, plus many fantastic photos.

One jarring note was to read on the back cover that Scott and Douglas Haston became national heroes after the Everest SW Face ascent. Did they?

In reply to mountain.martin:

You're absolutely right. Please accept my apologies. I was having a grumpy morning. Have a great Christmas!

In reply to mbh:


Well it made the news - first Brits up Everest etc. Heroes maybe a bit strong certainly less than Tenzing and Hillary.

Three of us including Doug went to Staiden one day in the 70's. Some HVS from memory. Doug struggled at about 10ft and went to pull on an in situ peg. We declined to pay out the rope and made him come down. We weren't having him distort the ethics of our branch of climbing. He understood.

In reply to bouldery bits:

Well thank you bouldery. Have a good Xmas yourself.

In reply to mountain.martin:


He's a tough bloke, he can take it. I mean, have you heard about when he crawled down The Ogre that time?

In reply to Goucho:


In the case of your 'goat' and Bouldery Bits's 'never knew', I'm inclined to agree. But there's absolutely no need to drag the BMC thing into every mention of Scott's name and/or lifetime achievements!

In reply to mbh:

When [Dougal] Haston was killed skiing just 16 months later, there were front page headlines lamenting 'Haston of Everest'. Since I'd have been 13 at the time and these three words have remained vividly etched in my mind, I'd say probably yes.

In reply to petestack:

I was about the same age as you then. Still am, I guess. Anyway I don't remember that. I'm impressed that you do. Probably to do with when we each became interested in and aware of the outdoors. The only headline I remember from way back when is "Communists Open The Berlin Wall", all across the front page of the Guardian, more than a decade later.

Anyway, back to Scott and the Ogre.

In reply to petestack:


FFS! Only now do I notice that! Oops.

In reply to mbh:

Took me 20 minutes (didn't spot it when I first replied), then tried to go back and make the point a bit more discreetly, but our posts crossed!

The strange thing is having no first-hand recollection of the 1975 ascent (when I'd have been 11) but being so struck by the 1977 accident. But that's just how it is.