Mountaineering History: 1977 Ogre Expedition

It could have been 1978; the FA expedition when Chris Bonington and Doug Scott summitted. According to Jim Curran in his book about Chris Bonington no member of the expedition wrote a book (supposedly a BBC film was made during the ascent and Id love to see the footage).

What an amazing story! Its not the only of its kind (epic survival at altitude) but its impressive how some of the members found and kept motivation to continue. Doug Scott having broken two legs not far below the summit right as night fell was a frightening situation to face Im sure (Bonington admitted to thinking Doug Scott was as good as dead). Thankfully Doug Scott discovered he could crawl and could still rappel/function.

To make matters worse was days being pinned down (I believe 1 night was an exposed bivy) and/or having to move in the storm, no food or fuel (at some points they regain some stuff) and...

On one particular rappel Doug Scott (with two broken legs and fatigued) rappelled right off of the ends of the ropes BUT it just so happened that there was a horizontal fixed line a few feet below and he latched on to save himself! Thats crazy! (Crazy fortunate there was a fixed line). To make matters worse when Doug went off the ends of the ropes it caused one strand to become longer than the other and Chris, not knowing this, got on rappel and zipped down. Once Chris (who doesnt know/see the mismatched lengths of rope) gets to the end of the shorter rope strand he flips over backwards and breaks a few ribs in the process. If Im not mistaken they are still 3000+ meters above basecamp (I could be mistaken with this statement).

They eventually crawl and stumble (Bonington was/is showing some symptoms of some edema also) back to basecamp to find it broken down!

If youre looking for some history and adventure to read, look into learning about this expedition. I find Doug Scotts ability to maintain focus on "one day at a time" as inspirational. He made a near full recovery. Also I believe (going off of days old memory now) there were zero fatalities and thats always cool.

Just sharing. "making small talk".

I feel bad that I dont recall all the other members. Nick Estcourt was one, Tut (last name eludes me currently) another...Mo (I dont remember his last name) another. It was stated, and makes sense, that Doug (especially) nor Chris would have survived if it were not for the other members.

Its a (now) story that had/has my adrenaline flowing. Enjoy!

dougscottmountaineering.co.uk/

Awesome Kirk! Thanks man.

Also chapter 16 of "The Boys Of Everest" by Clint Willis tells of the Ogre adventure.
The book is and outstanding read telling about that period in mountaineering and Bonington's climbing partners.

Highly recommended read.

I know I read the expedition story long ago, but can't place where. It might have been a very long article written for then current climbing mags like Summit or Off Belay. So many great survival stories of broken and left for dead climbers who recover, self rescue, etc. to live and tell their tale.

Bonington did an expedition report in 78 AAJ
The story I remember most was Scotts recount called Crawl Down the Ogre (see Kirks link). That story was published in some "collections" book but I can't seem to find it. There may be something in Doug Scott's big wall book

The Stoned Master wrote:I feel bad that I dont recall all the other members. Nick Estcourt was one, Tut (last name eludes me currently) another...Mo (I dont remember his last name) another. It was stated, and makes sense, that Doug (especially) nor Chris would have survived if it were not for the other members. Its a (now) story that had/has my adrenaline flowing. Enjoy!

Mo Anthoine and Clive Rowland got them down.Paul (Tut) last name is Braithwaite.

Rstrang wrote:Bonington did an expedition report in 78 AAJ The story I remember most was Scotts recount called Crawl Down the Ogre (see Kirks link). That story was published in some "collections" book but I can't seem to find it. There may be something in Doug Scott's big wall book

Bet that's where I read it, either in his big wall book or a reposting of the AAJ article. I bought a bunch of back issues of AAJ once from Chessler books, but never subscribed(=paid up costly membership I can't afford) to the club to get issues each year. Reprints of an abstract of story might have even made it into Outside mag back then.

+1 for "The Boys of Everest" an excellent read.