Mountain Climber Doug Scott, Mountains, Travel Destinations

On 29 May 1941, in Notthingham (England), Douglas Keith Scott was born. Today, he is known as Doug Scott CBE, with the CBE title awarded to him in 1994. Doug’s interest in mountain climbing started at a young age after a school outing took them to the White Hall Outdoor Activities Center. This trip inspired Doug Scott to take to the mountains from the age of 12. He would make 45 trips to the Asian mountains and walk away with 40 summits to his name.

On 25 September 1975 Doug Scott together with his climbing partner, Dougal Haston, summated Mount Everest from the South West Face. It was a climb that had never been done before and in true Doug Scott style they accomplished this amazing feat without the use of oxygen. Mountain climbers call this Alpine or Light Weight Style. Unfortunately the climbers only reached the summit of Mount Everest at six that afternoon which did not give them enough time to descend. They decided to climb down to the South Summit as nightfall was creeping across the mountain and they could not risk climbing down the mountain at night. Doug Scott and Dougal Haston were forced to make another decision that would go down in history – to bivouac at a height of 28 750 feet. This was only attempted once before in 1963 at a height of 28 000 feet and those climbers suffered terrible frostbite. The two mountain climbers had no choice but to bunker down in a snow cave and wait for the warm morning sunlight to greet them. By nine the next morning Scott and Haston crawled into camp. Tired, cold and hungry but without being touched by frostbite. Scott was also the first Britton to summit Mount
Everest.

Mount Everest was a memorable achievement in the career of Doug Scott, but he went on to summit “The Seven Summits” which are the seven continents’ highest mountains. Another interesting climb was his summit of the Ogre which is 24 000 feet. Scott suffered two broken legs, just above his ankles, but still managed to survive the eight-day descend back to the base camp. Kangchenjunga was another first for any climber as the North West Face had never been climbed before. But you never say “never” to Doug Scott. Joe Tasker and Peter Boardman joined Scott on this historical expedition in 1979. Of all the mountains that Doug Scott challenged, he mostly set out to do the expeditions that had never been done before and succeeded.

Today, Doug Scott still enjoys the adventure of climbing mountains although he hardly ever takes on those over 8000 feet these days. He now runs a successful mountaineering outfit, involves himself in charity work and raises awareness for the well-being and respectable pay rates for Sherpas and porters. Doug Scott is still creating his legacy even though the one that already exists is colorful, fascinating and astounding.

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