Himalayan Climber: A Lifetime's Quest to the World's Greater Ranges

by Doug K. Scott

Alternate Cover Edition can be found here.

The photos are of the climbs that have captured my imagination, have taken me out of myself, gripped with fear, shattered with exhaustion, or filled with wonder just to be there. If they stimulate and motivate others to take a step into the unknown, then this book will have been of some value. Doug Scott's historic ascent (with Dougal Haston) of the South-West Face of Everest in 1975 sparked a revolution in mountaineering, opening the way for climbers everywhere to adopt the rapid alpine style of ascent as they tackled the world's highest peaks. As part of an elite international group of climbers, Scott soon completed a string of major climbs on Shishapangma, Shivling, Nuptse, and notably on Kangchenjunga, where his ascent of the north ridge (with Pete Boardman and Joe Tasker) ranks among the greatest of the Himalayan climbs. Himalayan Climber is a stunning pictorial record of Scott's remarkable climbing career, covering 26 visits to the most fabled regions of the Greater Himalayan range, including the Hindu Kush, Tibet, the Karakoram, Ladakh, and Bhutan. Illustrated with over 400 dramatic colour photographs, Scott also narrates his adventures in other parts of the world: rock climbing in Derbyshire at the age of 11, bivouacking in freezing temperatures in the Alps and exploring the Atlas mountains as an aspirant climber. In over 30 years of Climbing, Scott has survived nights without oxygen at over 8,700 metres, a nine-day crawling descent from the Ogre with two broken legs and an avalanche on K2 that swept away his climbing partner. Despite this, he is still passionate and lighthearted in his depiction of a life spent in the mountains.

Genres: Mountaineering, Adventure, Travel, Biography

192 pages, Paperback

First published March 19, 1992

About the author

Douglas Keith Scott CBE, known as Doug Scott, is an English mountaineer noted for the first ascent of the south-west face of Mount Everest on 24 September 1975. Scott and Dougal Haston were the first Britons to climb Everest during this expedition. In receiving one of mountaineering's highest honours, the Lifetime Achievement Piolet d'Or, his personal style and climbs were described as "visionary".

Reviews

[Mihai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doug Scott is one of the greatest climbers in history, but his name has somehow remained relatively unknown (outside mountaineering circles anyway) even decades after completing major ascents that were far ahead of their time in terms of vision and technique. Scott was an early adopter of the alpine style, in which climbers carry everything with them up and down the mountain rather than engage in a siege-style expedition with multiple relays from camp to camp, and he applied this style with great success in almost three decades of leading-edge alpinism across all continents. Because of his technical prowess and superior endurance, Scott was able to survive some of the most difficult recorded ascents, the vast majority of them in the ultimate playground - the Himalaya and the Karakoram. As a mountaineer myself, I am in still in awe at his accomplishments, which are documented with some excellent pictures in Scott's photographic memoir Himalayan Climber.

This folio is really a collection of Doug Scott's self directed high-quality photography from his earliest days at the crags in England and Scotland to the final years of first ascents and new routes on remote high peaks in Asia. I liked that the chapters are arranged thematically, rather than chronologically, to highlight the diversity of Scott's endeavors and the different types of challenges faced. While his biggest and most famous ascents were in the Himalaya, wanderlust took our protagonist across the globe, from the European Alps to Yosemite Valley, Africa, the Southern Hemisphere and the Arctic. It was fascinating to see snapshots in time of places now so radically transformed (by conflict, human development and climate change) that it's hard to believe they were such interesting destinations many years ago.

I was expecting more in terms of narrative when I decided to read the book, so finding only 3-5 pages of text at the beginning of each chapter was rather unsatisfying. Though familiar with Scott's biggest successes from other sources (1975 Everest Southwest Face, 1976 Changabang West Wall, 1979 Kanchenjunga North Ridge), I was hoping to get more of his perspective, and perhaps more retrospection, on these and other equally impressive but not well known climbs. Instead, Scott presents just broad outlines of each adventure, and punctuates them with an anecdote or two so intriguing that I wish he had more of. Perhaps most understated of all is the epic retreat from Baintha Brakk a.k.a. The Ogre after making the first ascent in 1977; this escape is now recognized as one of the greatest survival stories of all times, with Scott crawling his way off the mountain after breaking both ankles.

Himalayan Climber is a fine photography book that would sit well on any coffee table, and even though it's not exactly a literary masterpiece because of the format, I am giving it 4 stars out of respect for the man who made it happen. Doug Scott will remain an inspiration for newer generations of mountaineers.

[Eapen Chacko · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've owned this book for many years, but it stands comfortably on my shelf, until once a year or so I renew my acquaintance. Doug Scott is one of the great modern climbers and explorers, and he is a pretty fine photographer too. Reading the narrative and looking at the pictures, you can almost feel the bright sun on the shining white snow covering the incredibly desolate and beautiful 8,000 meter peaks of the Himalaya.

[John]

stunning, stunning high altitude mountain photography. some career!