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Born | 1956 (age 67–68) [1] Wembley, England |
Occupation | Tax inspector (retired) |
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Updated on 5 August 2023. |
Michael Fowler (born 1956) is a British rock climber, ice climber, mountaineer and climbing author. He is internationally noted for his alpine climbing and was awarded the Piolet d'Or three times, with Paul Ramsden, in 2003, 2013, and 2016, for alpine-style first ascents of faces in the Himalayas. Fowler was one of the first British rock climbers to free an E6-graded traditional rock climbing route (Linden, 1976), and the first ice climber to free a consensus grade VI mixed Scottish winter route (The Shield Direct, 1979).
In the British Isles, Fowler is also noted for unusual and esoteric climbing including crumbling sea cliffs and sea stacks and using mixed climbing techniques on chalk cliffs. In 1989, Fowler was voted the "Mountaineers' Mountaineer" in a poll of his peers by The Observer . Fowler stayed as an amateur climber and maintained a full-time job in the HM Revenue and Customs for almost forty years. Many of Fowler's awards were earned climbing Himalayan peaks during his annual holiday leave from the Revenue.
In 1976, Fowler became one of the first climbers in Britain to make a first free ascent (FFA) of a traditional climbing route at the E6-grade of difficulty when he freed Linden on the "Eliminates Wall" at Curbar Edge. [2] [3] In 1979, Fowler also became the first British climber to ascend a mixed climbing route at a consensus Scottish winter grade VI of difficulty (i.e. formally registered in the guidebook) when he freed The Shield Direct with Victor Saunders on Ben Nevis; it later turned out to be grade VII/7 route. [2] [4]
Fowler was a pioneer of unusual and adventurous climbs, including multi-pitch climbing on crumbling British sea cliffs and sea stacks, and using mixed climbing techniques on chalk cliffs on England's southeast coast. [2] [5] The Stack Rock (2020) guidebook for sea stacks in the British Isles, identifies the era of "Fowler's forrays" from 1986 to 1993, as being one of the most important in the development of sea stack climbing, including his "outrageous" 1991 ascent of The Needle on Hoy (XS 5c). [6] Fowler famously ice-climbed a 65-foot (20 m) frozen water icicle from a broken toilet at St Pancras. [5] [7]
It is for alpine climbing that Fowler came to international recognition and the application of the alpine style (i.e. small teams carrying all their own equipment with no support) to high-altitude Himalayan faces. In his autobiography, Fowler recounts that by 1981, he completed his "tick list" of the European alpine classic north faces including the Walker Spur (1979) and the north faces of the Eiger (1980) and the Matterhorn (1980), when he met Alan Rouse who recommended he leave Europe and visit Peru. Fowler took his advice and learned to squeeze more ambitious expeditions into his 30-day annual leave from the Revenue. [8] By 1987, Fowler and Victor Saunders, won international acclaim for their groundbreaking alpine-style ascent of the "Golden Pillar" on Spantik in the Karakoram (Fowler called it the "Walker Spur" of the Himalaya), as a milestone in high-altitude climbing. [9] [10]
After the success of the "Golden Pillar", Fowler continued to focus on making important alpine-style ascents of high-altitude Himalayan new routes including the Northeast Buttress of Taweche (1995) and the Northwest Face of Arwa Tower (1999). [11] In 2003, Fowler and climbing partner Paul Ramsden, won the Piolet d'Or for their 2002 alpine-style ascent of the Northwest face of Siguniang; [12] they were the first British climbers to win mountaineering's most prestigious award. [13] The duo would win a second Piolet d'Or for their 2012 alpine-style ascent of the dramatic Northeast Buttress (the "Prow") of Mount Shiva . [12] In 2016, they won a third Piolet d'Or for their alpine-style ascent of North Face of Gave Ding. [14] [12]
In 2010, Fowler was elected to serve as president of the Alpine Club, which was a 3-year term from 2011 to 2013, after beating Henry Day in the first-ever contested election in the organization's 153-year history. [15] In 2014, Fowler was appointed as a Patron of the British Mountaineering Council. [16]
Fowler has written three books on his climbs and life as a climber, Vertical Pleasure: The Secret Life of a Taxman (1995), On Thin Ice (2005), and No Easy Way (2018); all three were shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature (never winning outright). Fowler won the Jon Whyte Award for Mountain Literature at the 2005 Banff Mountain Book Festival for On Thin Ice, [17] and a compilation of Fowler's writings about his climbs with Victor Saunders by Eric Vola, titled Les Tribulations de Mick et Vic, won the Grand Prix Award at the Passy Book Festival in France in 2015. [4]
In a 1989 poll carried out by the British newspaper, The Observer , amongst British climbers, Fowler was voted the "mountaineer's mountaineer". [13] [17] In 2005, Chris Bonington elaborated on The Observer poll saying "... it reflected climber approval of his highly original approach to the sport – explorations on chalk sea cliffs, alpine north faces, Scottish crags in winter and summer, and his first expeditions to major ranges which resulted in superb climbs ...". [18] Bonnington said Fowler had delivered on this early vote of confidence by becoming "one of our greatest mountaineers". [18] [13] [19] Fowler, with climbing partner Paul Ramsden, won the Piolet d'Or three times, a feat achieved by only four climbers. [12]
In 2005, The Telegraph said he was considered "a legend by other climbers, not least because of his ability to climb hard and remote mountains", but that by remaining an "amateur climber", he achieved his reputation on "all in the annual 30 days he gets off work". [13] In 2018, The Sunday Times newspaper called him "the world's greatest amateur climber". [7] Fowler said that he avoided the eight-thousander peaks as the circa 8-weeks of acclimatization would not fit into his 30 days of yearly holiday allowance from his full-time job. [20] [19] He said that he had considered turning professional at times, but that he was concerned more regular exposure to climbing would dull his enthusiasm for the sport. [13]
For almost 40 years from 1977 to his retirement in 2017, Fowler worked full-time for HM Revenue and Customs rising to the position of Assistant Director in the Shares and Assets Valuation Division, which is based in Nottingham (Fowler relocated from the Revenue in London in the early 1990s); [5] [7]
Fowler married his artist wife Nicola ("Nicki") Duggan in 1991[ citation needed ], they have two children. [13]
In 2017, Fowler underwent treatment for anal cancer which required him to use a colostomy bag; however this did not stop him from climbing in the Himalayas in 2019, [21] and on make first ascents of new routes on sea stacks off the Irish coast in 2023. [22]
Makalu is the fifth-highest mountain on Earth, with a summit at an elevation of 8,485 metres (27,838 ft) AMSL. It is located in the Mahalangur Himalayas 19 km (12 mi) southeast of Mount Everest, on the China–Nepal border. One of the eight-thousanders, Makalu is an isolated peak shaped as a four-sided pyramid.
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In mountaineering and climbing, a first ascent, is the first successful documented climb to the top of a mountain or the top of a particular climbing route. Early 20th-century mountaineers and climbers focused on reaching the tops of iconic mountains and climbing routes by whatever means possible, often using considerable amounts of aid climbing, and/or with large expedition style support teams that laid "siege" to the climb.
Sir Christian John Storey Bonington, CVO, CBE, DL is a British mountaineer.
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Victor Saunders is a British climber and author. He trained as an architect at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. His first book, Elusive Summits, won the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature in 1991. He became as a UIAGM/IFMGA ski and mountain guide in 1996 and joined the SNGM in 2003. Saunders first reached the summit of Mount Everest in May 2004, and went on to climb it several more times. In 2020 he became president of the Alpine Club.
Catherine Destivelle is a French rock climber and mountaineer who is considered one of the greatest and most important female climbers in the history of the sport. She came to prominence in the mid-1980s for sport climbing by winning the first major female climbing competitions, and by being the first-ever female to redpoint a 7c+/8a sport climbing route with Fleur de Rocaille in 1985, and an 8a+ (5.13c) route with Choucas in 1988. During this period, she was considered the strongest female sport climber in the world along with Lynn Hill, however, in 1990 she retired to focus on alpine climbing.
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Tamotsu Nakamura, FRGS, is a Japanese explorer, alpinist, photographer and author. Since 1990, he has explored the mountainous areas between the Himalayas and the Sichuan basin; which he documents in photographs. He is a leading authority on the Alps of Tibet, the south-eastern sector of the Tibetan high plateau.
Paul Ramsden is a British mountaineer and alpinist. He is internationally noted for his alpine climbing. Ramsden was awarded the Piolet d'Or five times for alpine-style first ascents of extreme high-altitude routes in the Himalayas: 2003, 2013 & 2016 with Mick Fowler. 2017 with Nick Bullock, and in 2023 with Tim Miller. Ramsden is notably media and publicity-shy, and in 2023 was described by the Financial Times as "The most decorated mountaineer ever ".
1st ascent of Golden (NW) Pillar by the Englishmen Victor Saunders and Mick Fowler, 5-11/08/1987 (5th overall ascent of Spantik). At the time it was heralded as one of the greatest alpine-style ascents in the Himalayas. The route, over 2000m long, climbs the 1000m high NW Pillar with Scottish ice V/VI climbing.