Everest Excitement!

Following the success of yesterday's outing to the Literature Festival, today Robin, myself and our good friends Andy and Gina went to hear three people speak about the allure of Mount Everest. Record breaking Everest mountaineer Kenton Cool, film maker and author of Last Hours on Everest Graham Hoyland, and Harriet Tuckey, daughter of the 1953 expedition doctor Griffith Pugh and author of Everest – The First Ascent.

What an interesting hour. Kenton has climbed Everest eight times! All three speakers provided great insight into the fascination of this great mountain. When I booked the tickets I had no idea that our guest Andy had shared a cottage with the speaker Graham Hoyland when they were both at university together. They had lost touch and so it was a thrill for us all to see them reconnected. The picture is of Graham signing a copy of his book for Andy.

I am fascinated by mountaineering accounts and I also got a copy of “Last Hours on Everest” where Graham provides a detailed reconstruction of what happened after Mallory and Irvine left camp on 8 June 1924. He has been interested in Mallory ever since being a small boy when he discovered a Great Uncle of his had given Mallory a camera to take on that fateful climb. Graham is an aficionado on the subject and was responsible for the finding of Mallory’s body high on the north face of Everest.