Q&A with Stephen Venables
Read our interview with 2024 Patron's Medal recipient, Stephen Venables.
Mountaineer, writer and public speaker Stephen Venables is one of two Royal Medal recipients in 2024. Stephen's career knows many breathtaking highlights. In addition to adventuring the Rockies, the Andes, and the Antarctic island South Georgia (to name a few), he has been credited with multiple first ascents.
Famously, Stephen, after climbing a new route on Everest's immense Kangshung Face with a small American-Canadian team, reached the summit alone. In the process, Stephen become the first Briton to climb Everest without supplementary oxygen.
I wanted to go climbing, preferably on big, remote, glaciated mountains.Stephen Venables
What did you want to be, or where did you want to work, when you were a teenager?
"I wanted to be performing Brahms’ first piano concerto, to a sold out audience at the Royal Festival Hall, with a top orchestra like the London Philharmonic. That was never going to happen. In the real world, I had no idea what work I would actually end up doing, but I did love wild mountain country and I wanted to go climbing, preferably on big, remote, glaciated mountains."
What has been the highlight of your career, regardless of how big or small, so far?
"Everest. Not because it was Everest, but because of the way we climbed it – the smallest team ever to climb such a hard new route on the mountain, without oxygen or high altitude porters, on the rarely visited East Face. But perhaps more exciting was the day when Maggie Body, the legendary editor at Hodder & Stoughton, said that she was going to publish my first book."
What are you looking forward to in the future? What’s next?
"In September, Skip Novak and I will be leading another expedition to South Georgia (my twelfth visit to the island) where we have unfinished business – some of the last major unclimbed summits on the island."
Missed Stephen Venable's lecture?
If you are a member of the Society and you missed or would like to rewatch Stephen Venable's Monday Night lecture "Everest24 anniversary" (Monday 20 May 2024), then you can now watch the lecture online.
