What Shipton achieved in a single lifetime was remarkable but it needs a good story teller to put the flesh on the bones of a long list of achievements and in Stephen Venables we had the perfect story teller. Venables himself is a legend of mountaineering; first Briton to climb Mount Everest without supplementary oxygen, past President of the Alpine Club and successful author, but more importantly he's been to the places Shipton pioneered, lived the hardship of expedition and almost literally trodden the footprints of Shipton. The result is like being a witness to someone else's out of body experience as those early Himalayan adventures come alive. The stories shift seamlessly between Shipton and Venables, Shipton always central to the tale but the feelings and experience told through Venables own eyes, as the speaker leads the audience through almost 50 years of adventure.
Before the event I knew of Shipton and how he'd opened the route up for the Everest 53 expedition and knew about his famous yeti footprint photographs and somewhere in the back of my mind I knew he'd been involved with Outward Bound at Eskdale but I knew nothing of his time in Patagonia, Africa or Bhutan and I knew little of the man himself. I had no idea he'd climbed Mount Kenya or named Island Peak, knew nothing of him introducing Tenzing Norgay to his first Everest expedition and didn't even realise he'd been awarded a CBE. When I left I not only knew about these but through Venables' eyes I walked away from the venue knowing something of the character of the man who should have led the '53 ascent of Everest - and why it was that character that prevented him from doing so. I left with an even greater sense of admiration for a man who could take such bitter news yet still offer honest and heart felt cngratulations when the team succeded and with a sense that here was a gentleman in the classic mould as well as a legendary mountaineer.
What Stephen Venables does with The Legend of Eric Shipton is bring the legend to life, turn back time and manipulate it to take you on a journey of highlights covering 50 years in a way only he could. Venables has known, met and talked to many of Shipton's contemporaries, seen the same places before the wilderness became accessible and climbed many of the same climbs. A generation from now that direct link with the age of legends will be gone and the names of Shipton, Hillary, Tilman and Percy Wyn-Harris will just be names in books.
It was a privilige to be there.
Note: This article was restored from the archives. It's published creation date is inaccurate.