Legendary mountaineer and explorer Doug Scott CBE gave a gripping talk on Arran earlier this month as part of a special 40-year anniversary tour he is undertaking, writes Hugh Boag.
Around 150 people packed into the community theatre in Lamlash to listen to Doug, who is known for one of the most dramatic stories of survival after encountering difficulties in the Karakoram mountains in Asia.
Using photographs and excerpts from his diary, Doug told how in July 1977 he and another icon of mountaineering, Chris Bonington, made the first ascent of BainthaBrakk, (7,285 m) in the Karakoram – descriptively known as The Ogre. Their climb extended the boundaries of what had been achieved before at that altitude. But it was the subsequent descent from the summit in the dark that turned a catalogue of disasters, which would have defeated most people, into an epic journey.