Alison Hargreaves 1962-1995 Why, as a mother of two children did she climb k2?
Born in Micklelover, Derby, Alison was the second daughter of Joyce and John Hargreaves. Her elder sister was Susan. Her parents had met at Oxford University, reading Mathematics. As an academic family with high they had high expectations for their daughters.
Crib Gogh 1970. The family was keen on outdoor activities and when Alison was 8 years old her father took his two daughters to Snowden, and they found themselves on Crib Gogh.
Then in 1971 the family moved to Belper, in the Peak District. The Roaches Cromford Black Rocks In 1975 Alison began her rock climbing on these rocks near her home.
Christmas 1975 Tryfan with the school. A miscalculation by the teacher led to an exciting night time abseil from the summit..
In April 1976 her sister Susan was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The months Susan spent in hospital put a distance between the sisters. After a difficult few months the family went together on holiday in the Austrian Alps.
Then in 1977 there was a school field trip to Rago in northern Norway to study glaciers.
In September 1977 Alison fell and hurt herself badly climbing at Stanage in Derbyshire. Her parents were becoming concerned with her focus on climbing, partly a fear that she would hurt herself and partly the effect it was having on school work,
Unable for a while to climb Alison took a weekend job at a climbing shop owned by Jim Ballard, who was then in his mid thirties. But in the autumn of 1978 she joined the Derwent Mountaineering Club and went with them to Snowdonia, the Lake District and Scotland
On the summit of Stob Coire nan Lachan she met Nigel Shepherd and fell in love.
Alison went up frequently to Snowdonia to be with Nigel. She was pleased to take on a domestic role, while he started his career as a climbing instructor. He knew so many people. But then he dumped her.
Her 18 th Birthday February 18 th 1980 The family celebrated with a pleasant family meal together. The next morning Alison came downstairs with her bag packed and announced she was going to live with Jim Ballard. After family discussions a compromise which worked for a while meant she still spent some of the week at home. But all expectations that she would go university were at an end.
At first Alison enjoyed the domestic life of running Meerbrook Lea and the comfortable life style Jim offered.
But life with Jim was quite isolated. Alison was expected to take on the domestic chores and had to pay her way. They set up a subsidiary business in which Alison made climbing accessories. The business would prosper. But she was still rock climbing and gained enough of a reputation to be invited in 1982 by the British Mountaineering Council to join a group of twenty international women climbers. She struck up a friendship with the American Catherine Freer.
Other internationally recognised women rock climbers she met; Rosie Andrews, Jill Lawrence. Though there was a clash of personalities with these experienced and famous women.
Then another invitation to an international climbing meet for women in the Gorge de Verdon, in the south of France.
Where she met the glamorous, charismatic and highly talented Catherine Destivelle. Catherine was the face of female rock climbing, all over the advertising in magazines and the Paris Metro.
Alison began to understand that she would never be able to compete with the likes of Catherine Destivelle in rock climbing as she had the wrong physique. She also came to realise that mountaineering and rock climbing required different skills and abilities and she perhaps was better suited to mountaineering. So 1983 it was off to the Alps with Jim s friend Ian Parsons and the Frendo Spur.
I had experienced survival in an Alpine storm, now the mountains were showing their glory: if in the Alps one is humble, can survive and adjust, then one is rewarded. Stubborness, and pigheadedness, I fear will lead to disaster. There is a lot to be learned about, but with a good amount of care and time put in, even greater rewards can be gained..i feel with more and more time and routes, I shall acquire the right gear for my needs, the right know how for routes, and with time be able to minimise all dangers by an acute awareness, attention and respect.
Then with Ian Parsons 1984 to Mont Blanc and.
and she climbed north face of the Matterhorn, very chuffed
Then again in 1985 Grandes And the Croz Spur Jorasses After 1985 Jim would not let her go away to the Alps for another 15 months. Alison wrote if Jim stops me, like he wants to, I am not sure what will happen to my future.
At a trade fair in 1986 Alison met Jeff Lowe, climber and owner of the Lowe firm, who offered her the chance to go to the Himalayas, to climb the 22,000 foot Kantega. Her parents gave her half the money for the trip, 1,000.
Climbing Kangtega, Alison had to adjust to all the difficulties of being at altitude
Acclimatisation is essential when climbing without oxygen to avoid some degree of altitude sickness. At 13,000 feet is the altitude at which high altitude edema (HAPE), or high altitude cerebral (HACE) can occur. [ In mounteering when ascending above an altitude of 8,000 metres (26,000 ft), the climber enters what is known as the death zone. Alison & Lowe on Katenga
Back at home life with Jim was now more and more difficult Depressed again at the moment. I need a goal again. At the moment I feel I am lost, caught up in mid flight, not sure if I want to crash land and start again or keep fluttering on and hope it stays all right. Any enthusiasm I had too has been battered out of me; it s easier not to bother. I need some independence - to do an create something, achieve something myself. Later in July 1987 on a business trip to Chamonix she was devastated to hear of the death of Catherine Freer. She was a wonderful person, a brilliant person. I felt she was a gentle person in the wrong body
Later in 1987 she went with her sister to Nepal. Her sister and brother in law were due to trek while Alison climbed. But there was a dreadful storm and climbers and trekers in the area were killed. I realise just how lucky we have all been. Alison determined to go home and start a family. In February 1988 Alison knew she was pregnant. Jim s divorce from his first wife came through and Jim and Alison married April 23 rd 1988.
So one more big climb the North Face of the Eiger, 5 months pregnant. The first British woman to complete the climb.
Tom was born 16 th October 1988 So on October 1989 Mont Blanc.
And her old rival Catherine Destivelle was living with Jeff Lowe in Chamonix. In 1990 she climbed the Nameless Tower near K2.. And got huge media coverage for it. Alison s second child, Katherine, was born in March 1991
February 1992 Alison was solo winter climbing in the Alps. She got severe frost bite and was told she must not climb for several months But Catherine Destivelle soloed the Eiger. I am devastated. I ve just had some of the worst news I could ever have had. Catherine Destivelle s soloed the Eiger. I want to go outside and scream I want to hide away for ever I feel terrible, shallow, useless. There s no point in me climbing, in doing anything. I just fail at everything. Their business failed and Alison believed she has to become a professional climber and be the earner in the family. The book A Hard day s Summer did not go down well with the mountaineering elite, but it did lead to an invitation to a conference in Banff, Canada. And so to Everest.
Eiger Grandes Jorasses Matterhorn Cima Grande Les Drus Badile. The house was repossessed, house,they packed everything into a camper van and took the children to the Alps. The visit was to be paid for by her writing a book about solo climbing the six classic northern faces in the Alps.
Her dream was to make enough money and fame to climb Everest and be the first British woman to climb it. However while in France she learnt that Rebecca Stephens had done that. So she planned to make it more difficult, so climb Everest without oxygen. Though mountaineers would recognise the difficulty, it would not grab the attention of the wider public.
And in 1994 the offer to join a medical expedition to Everest. She was going to climb without oxygen. Let s face it, I have to accept there s a fair chance she won t be coming back. Jim Ballard
On this visit all the family went with her to Everest Base Camp. Alison Hargreaves pictured on Everest a year before her death with children Kate (left) and Tom (right)
But the attempt was thwarted by bad weather. When she told Jim that she had had to retreat he was furious. It does seem that on the expedition she did begin a relationship with another man.
It seems that Alison had decided to leave Jim. But she was in an a agony of indecision. Would she be given custody of the children? Would she earn enough as a professional climber to support her children? Would a successful climb of Everest help to make her financially secure? Although her book A Hard Days Summer was not well received, it did lead to a lecture tour to Banff in Canada and to the Alpine Club in the UK. The result was invitations to Kangchenjunga, Everest and to K2. She needed sponsorship, but the selling point was that a mother of two small children was going to climb the three highest mountains in the world.
"I am on the top of the world and I love you dearly." A British mother of two had become the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas. Alison Hargreaves, 33, was only the second person ever to reach the peak of the world's highest mountain unaided. She reached the 29,028ft (8,847.7m) summit at 1208 local time on Saturday - 0723 in Britain - and immediately radioed her base camp. She wanted to send a fax to her two children, Tom and Kate, aged six and four, at home near Fort William on the west coast of Scotland.
Then just three weeks later K2, to be the 1 st British woman and only the 5 th British climber to climb K2. Of every 4 climbers on the mountain 1 will die. For most of its climbing history, K2 was not usually climbed with bottled oxygen, and small, relatively lightweight teams were the norm. As of 2017 just over 300 people have climber K2. 3,500 people have climbed Everest.
Wanda Rutkiewicz was the first woman to climb K2 Rutkiewicz's goal was to become the first woman to summit all fourteen of the eight-thousanders. During her climbing life she successfully summitted the following mountains: 1978 - Mount Everest 1985 - Nanga Parbat 1986 - K2 1987 - Shisha Pangma 1989 - Gasherbrum II 1990 - Gasherbrum I 1991 - Cho Oyu 1991 - Annapurna I 1992 - Kangchenjunga (uncertain)
Alison flew out with Alan Hinks to climb K2. But did not go with him when Alan Hinks took an opportunity of good weather to climb K2. Alison had made the decision to go with another partner.
Alison decided to climb K2 with Rob Slater, a very experienced American climber, whose friends said was reckless. When the weather appeared to improve again the 12 climbers waiting decide to climb. There are 5 New Zealanders, 5 Spaniards and Alison and Rob Slater.
Peter Hilary The weather deteriorated on the climb and the experienced Peter Hilary and those 4 climbing with him turned back. The Spaniards and Alison and Rob go on. "They had all become blinkered by the summit. They had become obsessed by that but I had become obsessed by the huge cloud banks that were building up in the north. "I turned back at midday and even then I was finding it difficult to find my way down over relatively easy ground. It was a mistake for them to go on the way they did."
"I saw Alison and she simply said, 'I'm going up.' Nothing was going to stop her. She was quite obsessive. That really is her story. She was going up and that was that." In the terrible storm all those seven climbing on the mountain were swept to their deaths by the winds, including Alison. They were descending from the summit.
When Hargreaves returned from Everest in 1995, there was a crush of reporters waiting to hear her story. Alison of Everest became, albeit briefly, a star. But the press was fickle. And, when she died three months later, caught in a storm on her descent from the summit of K2, aged 33, various commentators gave her memory a kicking. Not only had she been cavalier and selfish, they cried, but, worst of all wrote Polly Toynbee in The Guardian she had behaved like a man.
I do feel closer to my mother in the mountains. I don t know whether it s being higher to the heavens. I always feel she s looking down on me in spirit. I feel that she guides my path. April 2015 Tom Ballard: the new king of the Alps The 26-year-old has become the first person ever to solo climb all six major north faces of the Alps in one winter. In his first full newspaper interview since completing the feat, he says he climbs to escape - just like his famous mother Alison Hargreaves, who died on K2