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Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of the South-West Face of Everest at Base Camp Festival!
- Base Camp Festival
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
2025 marks a very special anniversary for British mountaineering, in that it is half a century since the groundbreaking expedition led by Sir Chris Bonington to summit Everest via the unclimbed South-West Face. This route had been attempted several times in the early 70s and critical to the ultimate success of the team of ’75 was the efforts of Nick Estcourt and Paul ‘Tut’ Braithwaite in forging a route through the Rock Band which unlocked the way to the summit itself. We are honoured to have Tut – one of the ‘golden generation’ of British Himalayan mountaineers – speak on Saturday evening at Base Camp Festival, and it will be a rare opportunity to hear him talk about the South-West Face expedition and his climbing career up to that point. He will also be talking about the work of Community Action Nepal, of which he is a trustee, the charity that his late teammate and legendary British climber Doug Scott founded to help the mountain communities of Nepal.
Tut isn’t the only Everest connection we have at Base Camp either. We also have one of the UK’s most successful high-altitude mountaineers, Adele Pennington, giving two talks and leading a walk into the fells on Sunday 6th. Adele was the first British woman to summit Everest twice, and she has ticked off five of the legendary 8000m peaks in total. You can sign up to Adele’s guided walk HERE.
Last but not least, we are delighted to welcome Adriana Brownlee to the festival. Adriana made deadlines in 2024 after having completed all of the world’s 8000m peaks at the age of just 23. Now running a trekking company in Nepal with her partner Gelje Sherpa, Adriana plans to return to Everest next year and attempt to summit without supplemental oxygen. You can hear all about Adriana’s adventures on Sunday evening at the festival.
If you haven’t booked your weekend pass for the festival yet, click HERE.
