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   Review: Stephen Venables: The Legend of Eric Shipton – The Lowry, Salford
Writer: Stephen Venables
Reviewer: Jo Beggs The Public Reviews Rating: Three and a half out of Five. What makes men (and occasionally women) climb mountains? Internationally acclaimed mountaineer, writer and broadcaster Stephen Venables doesn’t attempt to answer this question, but it’s one that plays on my mind throughout his excellent illustrated talk. Most of the audience don’t need to ask – a fair proportion of them look like they’ve been up a fair few. There’s certainly something in his opening statement about always treading the footsteps of those who’ve gone before you. Yet there’s also the obvious euphoria in standing on a summit that no-one has ever stood on before – a thing Venables has done several times. There’s camaraderie. Then there’s competition. Mountain climbing, it seems, throws up a whole lot of contradictions. This illustrated talk takes as its starting point the explorer Eric Shipton, himself a man of incongruities. Daring and enthusiastic, ready to set off on any adventure with hardly any planning, yet not considered by his colleagues as quite serious enough. Happy alone on a mountain or crushed into a tent with a monosyllabic climbing buddy, yet, when given the chance, a rather charming socialite and womanizer. It’s Shipton’s footprints that Venables himself has often trod. Drawn by the same challenges to remote parts of the world, this amiable man has seen things few people have – and photographed them beautifully so that we can see them too. His juxtapositions of his own photos with eerily similar images from the 1930s and 40s show just how little these landscapes, and the urge to seek them out, has changed. Venables with his Sherpas, Shipton with his Sherpas. Venables peering out of a tent, Shipton peering out of a tent. Venables kitted out in the latest high-tech outdoor clothing, Shipton halfway up Everest in a tweed jacket, smoking a pipe. The talk is almost two hours long yet moves at such a pace that it seems half that. There’s a successful balance of mountaineering anecdotes, descriptions of glorious views and the historic tale of Shipton, which lies at the heart of it. We hear about the short periods of time Shipton spent nearer to sea level – his war years as British Consul in Kashgar, Central Asia, his near retirement as a farm labourer in Bridgenorth (until he decided the sedentary life wasn’t for him and headed off to Patagonia). We hear about his disappointments; the lost chance to share in Hillary’s Everest expedition, and his many, many triumphs. Venables is clearly a fan, and his engaging delivery and aptitude for telling a good story make Shipton a great subject. I don’t climb mountains, but I found The Legend of Eric Shipton a wholly compelling and satisfying experience.
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