Brian will tell the story of climbing through the 1970’s and 80’s and look particularly at his memories of eleven friends he climbed with including Alan Rouse, Paul Nunn, Joe Tasker, Pete Thexton, Georges Bettembourg, Mike Geddes, Alex MacIntyre, John Whittle, John Syrett, Sam Cochrane and Roger Baxter-Jones.

He will start with rock climbing at Leeds University, getting to grips with the hard game of mountaineering in Scotland, the Alps in winter and then Patagonia and the Andes. He then went  to Nepal on expeditions to Jannu, Nuptse, Everest in winter, Ogre 2 and K2.

He asks why they took such risks and remembers his times with these friends with fondness, celebrating their achievements and looking back at a very different world than today. An epoch that marked the change from heavyweight expeditions to fast and ‘light’ alpine style. They thought it was a safer way to climb but in the end the statistics show otherwise.

The talk summarises Brian's new book of the same name that will be available for sale on the night.

Non-members are very welcome to attend but should book in advance either by completing the form below or by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

There is no official charge for entry, but we do ask those non-members who are able to make a small contribution to allow the lectures to keep running.

If you are unable to attend the lecture in person, members will be able to access a video recording of the talk shortly after the event via the 'Lecture Archive' section of the 'Member Login' drop-down menu. (You will need to log into the website to see this).