'BEYOND THE VOID'

A LECTURE AND SLIDE PRESENTATION

BY SIMON YATES

In a career spanning twenty years Simon Yates’ climbing and traveling has taken him from Alaska in the west to Australia in the east, from the Canadian Arctic in the north to the tip of South America. During this time he has been fortunate enough to climb with some of Britain’s leading contemporary mountaineers including among many Andy Cave, Mick Fowler, Andy Parkin, Paul Pritchard, Doug Scott, Sean Smith and Steve Sustad.

He first came to prominence as a mountaineer in 1985 after the first ascent of the West Face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes and the ensuing epic descent described in Simpson’s book ‘Touching the Void’ and the 2003 BAFTA wining docu-drama of the same name.

Simon has made ten visits to the Pakistani Karakoram, climbing numerous peaks. These have included first ascents of Leyla Peak (6300m) and Nemeka (6400m) in Hushe, a second ascent of Lobsang 2 on the Baltoro and various 6000m peaks on the Hispar glacier. In other parts of the world, Simon has succeeded with a team making the first British ascent of Khan Tengri (6995m) in Kazakhstan and for a time concentrated on big wall climbing in Patagonia and Baffin Island - the most notable achievement, a new route on the Central Tower of Paine in Chile. Simon almost succeeded making the first ascent of Makrong Chhish (6608m) on the Hispar glacier in Pakistan in 1996 and in 1997 reached 8300m on Lhotse the world's forth-highest mountain. Most recently (2001 and 2003) Simon has made two sailing and mountaineering trips to Chilean Tierra del Fuego resulting in the first ascent of Monte Ada (2100m) and the third ascent of Monte Frances (2200m).

In addition to climbing for himself Simon has successfully guided clients to the summits of peaks such as Ama Dablam (6856m) in Nepal, Aconcagua (6960m) in Argentina and Marble Wall (6400m) and Khan Tengri (6995m) in Kazakhstan.

Simon's first book - 'Against The Wall' was published to critical acclaim in 1997 and was runner up in The Boardman Tasker Award for mountain literature. His second book ‘The Flame of Adventure’ was published in 2001 and was short-listed for a prize in the prestigious Banff Mountain Book Festival.

In this lecture Simon will take a humorous and philosophical look at some of the more notable experiences over his years as a mountaineer, accompanied by a stunning selection of slides collected during his travels.

Concluding his review for The American Alpine Journal Jeff McCarthy noted:
‘In the Flame of Adventure we look back across one mountaineer’s wild times, desperate effort, joy and uncertainty. We are privileged to watch him wrestle that variety of experience into a philosophy that explains, excuses and inspires.’

To arrange for Simon to give a lecture Contact Heason Events