A few words about Stephen:

One of the best known mountaineers of his generation, Stephen Venables was the first Briton to climb Everest without oxygen – just one of many pioneering climbs throughout the Himalaya and other mountain ranges around the world. His first book, Painted Mountains, won the Boardman Tasker Award; reviewing his most recent, A Slender Thread, the Observer praised his ‘novelist’s sense of dramatic punch’. As well as eight books, he has written for all the major national newspapers and appeared in numerous television programmes, incuding the recent BBC Mountain Men series, for which he climbed the Matterhorn in Victorian tweeds and nailed boots, and the BBC’s Race for Everest. His most recent overseas project was retracing Ernest Shackleton’s steps across South Georgia for the IMAX movie Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure. A master storyteller and skilful photographer, his illustrated lectures have inspired audiences all around the world.

Stephen's Lectures:

Stephen Venables has a great range of lecture topics drawn from forty years experience of walking, skiing and climbing all over the world. Although he has pioneered extremely hard new climbs, for him the journey to the foot of the mountain is often as enthralling as the actual climb. As well as the lectures below for general audiences, he offers specific presentations for corporate conferences, dinners and training programmes.

Stephen hanging out in an Everest crevasse

Stephen experiencing a very cold Everest bivi

Everest Without Oxygen
The enthralling story of Stephen's ascent of a new route up the Kangshung Face of Everest.

Everest - Eighty Years of Human Endeavour
The story of western man's involvement with the world's highest mountain, from the Reconnaissance of 1921 to the present day, looking at all three sides of Everest, including the little known Kangshung Face, where Stephen wrote his own chapter in Everest's history.

Enchanted Island - In Shackleton's Steps Across South Georgia
A stunning visual feast based on Stephen's two expeditions to the Antarctic Island of South Georgia. In 1990 he made first ascents of several peaks on the island; in 2000 he returned to take part in the IMAX movie Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure, retracing Shackleton's desperate 1916 journey across the mountains, with American climber, Conrad Anker, and the famous Tyrolean, Reinhold Messner.

Mountains of the Far South
From the penguin-throned beaches of South Georgia, to the rainforests of Tierra del Fuego, to the unique mountain landscapes of Southern Africa, this slideshow describes some of Stephen's most enjoyable adventures in the mountainous lands which fringe the Southern Ocean.

A Slender Thread - Escaping Disaster in the Himalaya
When the abseil anchor ripped on the descent from Panch Chuli V in northern India, Stephen assumed that he was dying. Against all the odds, he survived a 300 foot fall, but was left stranded with two broken legs, at 19,000 feet above sea level. This is the story about the courage of his companions, including Sir Chris Bonington, who were determined, somehow, to get him out alive.

Mountains of Five Continents
An autobiographical tour of the world's mountains, from Scotland to the summit of Everest.