Doug Scott CBE, 29 May 1941 – 7 December 2020
December 8, 2020 7:33 AM Subscribe
Doug Scott, legendary British Mountaineer, has died of brain cancer at the age of 79.
Scott was a member of Chris Bonington's 1975 Mount Everest Southwest Face expedition, who along with Dougal Haston became the first to climb Everest via the Southwest Face, famously bivouacking at 28,750 ft, a record that may never be broken.
Scott made a total of 45 expeditions to Asia and has climbed the highest peak on all seven continents. He is the founder of Community Action Nepal, an organization that helps the mountain people of Nepal.
Scott was a member of Chris Bonington's 1975 Mount Everest Southwest Face expedition, who along with Dougal Haston became the first to climb Everest via the Southwest Face, famously bivouacking at 28,750 ft, a record that may never be broken.
Scott made a total of 45 expeditions to Asia and has climbed the highest peak on all seven continents. He is the founder of Community Action Nepal, an organization that helps the mountain people of Nepal.
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posted by Going To Maine at 8:43 AM on December 8, 2020
posted by Going To Maine at 8:43 AM on December 8, 2020
With this sad news and the loss of Hamish MacInnes we've said farewell to two giants of British mountaineering in less than a month. I was eight at the time of the 1975 Everest expedition and followed it avidly - I must have read Chris Bonington's Everest the Hard Way about 20 times as a teenager. Doug Scott was a great climber and writer, and never stopped looking like the scruffy teacher he used to be.
posted by YoungStencil at 9:17 AM on December 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by YoungStencil at 9:17 AM on December 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
A bit of a hero of mine when I was a teenager rapidly devouring my way through the 'classic' Himalayan mountaineering literature.
Though our hills were very small, my brother, my friends and I all had big mountain dreams. We'd head out into the forest looking for small crags and iced up drips and tried to teach ourselves climbing and mountaineering techniques. Indoors, I'd lap up Freedom of the Hills (of course) and books by Scott and Bonnington, among others. Scott was a particular hero; in the books and journals he was often shown with bared gritted teeth in the midst of some howling Himalayan storm (this here is the classic image -- he's in the midst of an epic multi-day descent down the Ogre with two broken legs). We'd channel him while out getting hosed and gripped on our little crags, often yelling to each other: "show us your Doug Scott" -- meaning, do your best gritted teeth mountaineering battle look and push through. We might have been scared young teenagers on a tiny crag in the Quebec woods, but in our minds we were rappelling down the Ogre or bivouacking high on Everest.
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posted by bumpkin at 9:22 AM on December 8, 2020 [7 favorites]
Though our hills were very small, my brother, my friends and I all had big mountain dreams. We'd head out into the forest looking for small crags and iced up drips and tried to teach ourselves climbing and mountaineering techniques. Indoors, I'd lap up Freedom of the Hills (of course) and books by Scott and Bonnington, among others. Scott was a particular hero; in the books and journals he was often shown with bared gritted teeth in the midst of some howling Himalayan storm (this here is the classic image -- he's in the midst of an epic multi-day descent down the Ogre with two broken legs). We'd channel him while out getting hosed and gripped on our little crags, often yelling to each other: "show us your Doug Scott" -- meaning, do your best gritted teeth mountaineering battle look and push through. We might have been scared young teenagers on a tiny crag in the Quebec woods, but in our minds we were rappelling down the Ogre or bivouacking high on Everest.
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posted by bumpkin at 9:22 AM on December 8, 2020 [7 favorites]
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posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 10:21 AM on December 8, 2020
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 10:21 AM on December 8, 2020
i had a doug scott poster on my wall in high school. i think on annapurna.
and i would read and reread this. i had aspirations, until i figured out I didn't do great with high exposure. happy being a modest peak bagger these days.
^
posted by j_curiouser at 1:32 PM on December 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
and i would read and reread this. i had aspirations, until i figured out I didn't do great with high exposure. happy being a modest peak bagger these days.
^
posted by j_curiouser at 1:32 PM on December 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
Doug Scott came to our school to do a talk - I used to have a signed poster somewhere - and I was hugely inspired to follow in his footsteps until I realised I get vertigo more than two rungs up a step ladder.
posted by Grangousier at 8:52 AM on January 3, 2021
posted by Grangousier at 8:52 AM on January 3, 2021
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A-also, Mt Everest is a little bit higher than previously thought [Grauniad]
posted by chavenet at 8:28 AM on December 8, 2020 [1 favorite]