Pioneering Pensioners

Following the excellent talk given by Dawson Stelfox last autumn to help raise funds for the new Mourne Mountain Rescue Team base, one of Britain’s most respected and inspirational mountaineers, Mick Fowler, will give a presentation titled, “Pioneering Pensioners”, about his climbing partnership with Victor Saunders and covering their early climbs together through to their most recent ascent of Yawash Sar in Pakistan’s Karakoram. Back in September, 40 years after their first trip to Pakistan, Mick (68) and Vic (74) made the first ascent of this 6,258m peak, via its north-west face, reaching the summit during a seven-day trip from their basecamp.

Still enjoying his passion for mountaineering and climbing today as much as he did when he was putting up hard first ascents in the Scottish winters back in the 1970s, Mick Fowler is internationally noted for his string of alpine-style first ascents of faces in some of the remotest parts of Himalaya, spanning a period of five decades, from the Golden Pillar on Spantik in 1987, to his most recent, Yawash Sar.

Awarded annually to celebrate the most notable of mountaineering achievements and considered internationally as mountaineering and alpine climbing’s highest honour, Mick has been awarded the Piolet d’Or three times. In more recent years, Mick has also taken up fellrunning and is an eleven times finisher of the Isle of Jura Fell Race.

After a lifetime of mountains and crags whilst working full-time for almost 40 years for HM Revenue and Customs, he retired only in 2017. Shortly after his retirement, Mick was faced with another mountain of sorts to climb in the form of a serious cancer diagnosis. Having navigated the illness, its treatment and its lasting effects with remarkable positivity and openness, Mick remains as active now as ever he has been: the connoisseur of fine routes, he continues to pour over photos and Google earth in search of the next peak..

The evening will start at 19.30 with an update on the progress of new Team base, followed by Mick’s talk and finishing with a raffle.