James Lancashire: a Seven Summiteer!
11 July 2011
James Lancashire (pictured above left), an instructor at The Outward Bound Trust, has just returned from Alaska having completed his 7th of the 7 highest summits on each continent. Now as a fully-fledged ‘7 Summiteer’, James tells his story on freeze dried food, getting down on one knee and what he’s going to get up to next.
My journey to the 7 summits began in 2005 when I was given the chance to join an expedition to climb Mt. Elbrus in Russia, which was swiftly followed by an opportunity to take part in a Cho Oyo expedition the following year. So far so good - I found that I was able to cope with altitude very well and every member of our team had summitted. As a result, I was automatically offered a place on a UK RF Everest exped and so at 7am on 22 May 2007, I found myself stood on the roof of the world.
My success turned a few heads in the outdoor community and I was later asked to be a part of Project7Summits - a small team of mountaineers looking to conquer Carstenz Pyramid, Aconcagua, Mt Vinson and Denali by 2011. Now having completed all 7 expeditions, I can safely say that you go through so many emotions on these sorts of expeditions – from excitement and awe when you’re on the way up, the ecstasy on summitting, the relief and fatigue of reaching base camp again and a longing for the next challenge when you’re back on home soil. There were certainly some spectacular high points of my time in Alaska: perhaps the best one being that I proposed to my now fiancée, Rose, by satellite phone on the Denali summit. But a close second to that is the fact that after 5 years of trying, we finally managed to get our freeze dried food rations right and were able to feast on some rather tasty puddings – a real luxury in mountaineering terms! Having said that, there were also some lows, including the terror of 8km of skiing across the worst mountain terrain I have ever come across – a really emotionally draining experience.
Throughout my 7 summits, there’s been some tough times, including seeing the bodies of those who had died in the course of their expeditions – six people died on the south side of Everest in 2007 alone. On Cho Oyo I saved the life of an Italian climber by dragging, carrying and pushing him back down to base camp 2, having found him collapsed on the mountain at just under 8,000m. The next day our team evacuated him down two ice falls and back to a rescue base – it was a real delight to see him recovered a few days later.
On our own Everest expedition, our summit attempt was almost in tatters after a team of retreating Koreans destroyed our camp, stealing our food and trashing our tents. Luckily we had backup supplies to keep us going. Altitude sickness can put a real downer on your expedition too – it hit me on both Everest and Cho Oyo – but thankfully my stash of Haribo kept me going! Despite all of that, I would never give up on an expedition, if the conditions were right, but that’s not to say I would risk a finger or ten or take unnecessary risks for the sake of reaching the summit.
Being part of such a skilled and successful team was a real motivator, as is the opportunity to travel to far flung places like Antarctica and do things that very few people have done before. What I love about the outdoors is that every day is different, living and working outside you appreciate things more and it’s so easy to escape and have your own personal adventure, whether that’s mountaineering, climbing or just going for a walk in the rain. I was never particularly academic at school, but get me outside and I can get to grips with anything. I passionately believe in the power of learning through experience and without doubt, adventures in the wild are some of the most effective tools to boost your confidence and learn more about yourself and other people. These days, I think it’s even more important for kids to spend time in the outdoors – it helps them understand the bigger picture in life and gives them a chance to take some responsibility for themselves. Just being in the outdoors can be a real eye opener for a young person. Maybe that’s why I’d be happy for my son, Jack, to follow in my footsteps and take up a career in the outdoors.
What’s next? Well, there are still 12 other 8,000m peaks out there that I’d love to take a crack at, but for now my biggest challenge is planning a wedding – which could well prove to be the toughest challenge yet!
