Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
2 appearances
Britain's best-known mountaineer, who summited Mount Everest in 1985.
On the island
Eight records
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
I love Bob Dylan, and I still do, and I still listen to him a lot. And it's Don't Think Twice, It's All Right, which I was wondering about at that time.
Samba de la CandelariaFavourite
This was a record that Wendy and I bought on our way back from the only expedition that Wendy's come with me... and he's got a mournful, sad voice and his guitar playing's wonderful.
when I was feeling really depressed I'd play this'cause it was very, very jolly.
Wendy was um free en freelance illustrator. She also played the guitar. And when we settled in the Lake District as the the nicest place to live, she then got really interested in folk singing and did an awful lot of it, and she had a a very germ biasy kind of voice.
Piano Concerto No. 14 in E-flat major, K. 449: II. Andantino
I find some classical music it does it's just very, very soothing, and Mozart is particularly soothing when, you know, everything's on to you and and it just kind of gets you into a nice tranquil mood.
where record number six is going is really it's part of that seventies kind of climbing period and climbing with people like Nick Escort, Mo Antoine, Doug Scott and so on on the Ogre and other mountains. And one of the the really popular cassettes that we had out with us was Doctor Hook, which I I think is a fabulous cheering up kind of um band.
Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter
I suppose actually I'm quite a sentimental soul in some ways, and I and because of that I I actually I I like country and western. And this is Whelan Jennings and Jesse Coulter in rainy seasons.
I've only actually I've only just discovered Van Morrison and someone gave me um the C D and it's lovely and I listen to it an awful lot as I drive around the country.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:44How did climbing come into it? [When did you first become interested]?
I was evacuated or my school was evacuated up to Westmoreland and I started wandering in the hills then with my unfortunate grandmother … I suppose I started seriously when I was sixteen … I then started wandering in Wales … saw these extraordinary people on rock faces climbing with ropes, and I just instinctively knew that this was something I wanted to do more than anything else.
Presenter asks
1:37Did you get up any Alps during your service in the RAF and Royal Tank Regiment?
Well, I first went climbing in the Alps uh while I was in Germany … the first Alpine route that I ever set out for a natural fact was the north wall of the Eiger, which is absolute lunacy for someone who'd never been in the Alps before … Fortunately the weather was bad and we turned back from it and then of course I went on at a later date to do the north wall of the [Eiger].
Presenter asks
4:11These expeditions took a lot of time and money. You weren't independent enough to say 'This is my life'. How did you manage?
Well, up to when I climbed the Igra [Eiger] I'd always been working … I'd first worked in the army and then I'd left the army and worked for Unilever as a management trainee … After we'd climbed the Aiger [Eiger] … a publisher came and said 'Well, will you write a book for us?' and I also had a lot of lectures, and I found that I could make a living … as a communicator by writing and talking about it and doing the thing I really like doing and having a much greater level of freedom.
The keepsakes
The book
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Volume 1: The Birth of Britain
Winston Churchill
I thought I'd been actually listening to The Sceptred Isle recently. It was this wonderful programme on radio for I don't know how many people have listened to it. And they use excerpts from the history of the English speaking people, which is Winston Churchill's wonderful kind of historical bit. So can I have that?
The luxury
PowerBook G3 laptop with Civilization 2 game
I'm so addicted to this game that I've actually had to take it off all my computers and I've given the C D to my secretary and she's got orders that under no circumstances can she give it to me until I finish my next book. So I can play that without anyone to say you're not allowed to.
Presenter asks
6:58With all your experience of the Himalayas, what's your view of the Yeti, the abominable snowman? Are you for or against?
Well, I don't know. Don Willands [Whillans], he made the reconnaissance to find our base camp just below the south face of Annapurna, and he's convinced he saw the Yeti … he saw this dark silhouette of the creature against the snow in the moonlight … it definitely wasn't a bear or a deer … he took a photograph of the tracks the next day and they were really good Yeti-like tracks and personally I think the Yetis are more likely than the Loch Ness Monster.
Presenter asks
8:01Last year you went for the jackpot, the highest one of all, Everest. This gallant expedition failed. It was the weather that beat you?
It wasn't so much the weather as the time of year … you get very, very high winds and you get intense cold … this was the only time of year that we could get it, because Everest's booked up for the next eight years … we felt that we'd tried ourselves to the limit and okay we'd failed, but not through want of trying.
Presenter asks
9:42What are the problems of doing special climbs for television?
Well, um they're terrific fun. I suppose the most obvious problem is that you've got to climb with a pair of headphones on … you've got a continuous buzzing in your ears and you're aware of the fact that millions are watching you, so you've no desire to fall off in public … you've got to talk as well while you climb … the occasional four letter word has crept out, in fact, in these telebroadcasts.
Presenter asks
0:32You're an addict then, are you, Chris? You just can't do without [climbing].
Yes, I think I am. I love it. It's I suppose the whole combination. It's it's the doing of it, first of all, and just clambering up a a rock and actually enjoying the physical sensation of it. It's uh inevitably the element of risk as well, the fact that there is a danger there and you're using your skill to try to eliminate that danger. But that gives you a real bluzz.
Presenter asks
10:03Had you felt the kind of pull of the mountains before [age sixteen]?
No, I mean, no, I I was completely unaware of the mountains really. Um my parents split up when I was very, very young, about a year old, and my mum brought me up... Left to my own devices, had to be. And I suppose that that encouraged me to be independent.
Presenter asks
15:21How did [the job with Unilever] fit in with the climbing?
I worked on a principle of closing down all the accounts on Fridays and Mondays. And I'd got it to the point where on a Monday or a Friday I could get round in about an hour and a half flat. And then I'd disconnect the Speedo on the Ford Popular and we'd drive up to Wales and have a long weekend in Wales. So I think it was actually a race between me actually resigning from Unilever and them sacking me.
Presenter asks
21:00Did [Don Whillans] ever forgive you for climbing [the Eiger] without him?
Uh Not really, no.
Presenter asks
30:04Do you remember that moment of reaching the summit [of Everest]?
It's very mixed up... I cried. And it was the I think the thoughts of so many friends... so many of them, I mean. Nick escort... is killed on K two Mick Burke was killed on the second summit bid Pete and Joe, Dougal... And it was just the thoughts that that's the price you pay... so it was grief, it was um It was being totally, utterly exhausted, and yet it was joy.
“I saw these extraordinary people on rock faces climbing with ropes, and I just instinctively knew that this was something I wanted to do more than anything else.”
“the first Alpine route that I ever set out for a natural fact was the north wall of the Eiger, which is absolute lunacy for someone who'd never been in the Alps before”
“we actually drove back overland from Noptse and I'd arranged to meet Don Willems below the Eiger and we had twenty quid and the two of us managed to make that twenty quid last for three months, sitting below the north wall of the Eiger. We lived on potatoes most of the time.”
“personally I think the Yetis are more likely than the Loch Ness Monster.”
“we felt that we'd tried ourselves to the limit and okay we'd failed, but not through want of trying.”
“I think everyone has about the same amount of luck and bad luck. And I think it's rather like playing poker. I think the the people are successful are the people who grab those windows of opportunity and actually Damp down the bad luck periods who become known as lucky.”
“I think as far the thing that frightens me is not death. The thing that frightens me is actually getting totally old and totally crotchety. And I think I'd much rather go out on a desert island or on a high mountain or something than kind of, you know Totally gun of going to helpless old age.”