Career
In 1988, Venables became the first Briton to ascend the summit of Mount Everest without bottled oxygen. His ascent, as far as the South Colonel, was by a new route up the Kangshung Face from Tibet, with just three other climbers, Americans Robert Anderson and Editor Webster, and Canadian Paul Teare. All four reached the South Colonel but Teare decided to descend from here, concerned about incipient altitude sickness.
The other three continued up the final section of the normal 1953 route, but Anderson and Webster were forced to turn back at the South Summit.
Meanwhile, Venables reached the summit alone, at 3.40 pm. Descending late in the day, he decided to bivouac in the open at about 8,600 metres, rather than risk a fall by continuing in the dark.
Anderson and Webster spent the night slightly lower in an abandoned Japanese tent. In the morning all three were reunited and continued down to their own tents on the South Colonel
lieutenant took them a further three days to complete an epic retreat down the Kangshung Face.
All three climbers suffered some frostbite, with Webster affected worst. Venables"s other Himalayan first ascents include new routes in the Hindu Kush (1977), Kishtwar Shivling (1983), Solu Tower (1987), the south-west ridge of Kusum Kanguru (1991) and Panch Chuli V (1992). During the descent from Panch Chuli V Venables broke both his legs in a fall, when an abseil anchor failed.
Thanks to his Indian and British team mates and the Indian Air Force, he was rescued.
This expedition was recorded in his book A Slender Thread and in Victor Saunders"s Number Place to Fall. He has also made first ascents in Peru, Bolivia, Patagonia and South Georgia.
He has appeared in several British Broadcasting Corporation television documentaries and the IMAX film Shackleton"s Antarctic Adventure. He is currently president of the South Georgia Association and is a past President of the Alpine Club.
Venables is also the father of the only known child in the United Kingdom to be diagnosed with both autism and leukaemia.
After several cancer-free years, he developed a brain tumour and died, aged twelve years old. His life was the subject of Venables"s tenth book Ollie, published in 2006. 1996 Banff Mountain Book Festival (Grand Prize), Himalaya Alpine-Style: The Most Challenging Routes on the Highest Peaks.
