Doug Scott, the world-renowned mountaineer, gave a fascinating talk on his adventures climbing the three highest mountains in the world to a packed high
school theatre last Thursday night. Proceeds from the ticket sales went to ROKPA and Community Action Nepal &ndashnearly &pound3,000 was raised overall. Arran Mountain Rescue Team also benefited from the night. Doug’s slide show of stunning photographs and tales of daring held the audience spellbound. He spoke of being one of the first Britons to scale Everest and then about spending the night sitting for nine hours in a snow-hole at 30,000feet with no sleeping bag and no oxygen left in his tank. The temperature touching &ndash50 degrees centigrade and both he and Dougal Haston losing their minds because of the conditions. At one point Doug said he actually heard his freezing feet complaining to each other about the cold!
The humour was tempered by the tragedy of his friends’ deaths on the mountains and there were sobering photos and descriptions of the extreme effects on the human body from black frostbitten fingers to fatal cerebral and pulmonary oedemas.