Ian Findlay  -  Doug Scott   -   Katharine Begg

A wet, windy, dark night in December was for staying indoors unless you were one of the lucky ticket holders who made there way to Forfar Leisure Centre to listen to the Doug Scott Lecture. Arranged by Forfar Rotary Club, the audience were treated to Doug’s mountaineering exploit when on conquering “The Ogre” he broke both legs on the top part of the descent. This he explained was why the lecture was entitled “A crawl down the Ogre” and Doug’s dilemma of how to get down a mountain by using his knees more often than not to get off the mountain aided in part by fellow climbers who dragged him across the snow clad terrain. During the interval the audience had the opportunity to purchase items made by the people of Tibet as well as books and prints from the vast array complimenting the photographic skills that have made Doug’s work highly sought after. International Convenor Katherine Begg intimated to the sell out audience that monies raised will be used by Doug for his Tibetan Charity and by Forfar Rotary for international aid.

Doug Scott CBE has made 45 expeditions to the high mountains of Asia.  He has reached the summit of 40 peaks, of which half were first ascents, and all were climbed by new routes or for the first time in Alpine Style.  Apart from his climb up the South West Face of Everest with Dougal Haston during Chris Bonington's Expedition of 1975, he has made all his climbs in lightweight or Alpine Style, without the use of artificial oxygen.  He has reached the highest peaks on all seven continents - "the seven summits". He is a past President of the Alpine Club.  He was made a CBE in 1994. In 1999 he received the Royal Geographical Society Patron’s Gold Medal.

Main Events:  The main events of his climbing career are:

1.   The climbing of Everest by the South West Face with Dougal Haston.

2.   Surviving the breaking of two legs near the summit of the Ogre (24,000 ft) and the 8 day descent to base camp.

3.   Making the first ascent of Kangchenjunga from the North West with Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker – in light weight style and without oxygen.  This was the first time one of the big mountains had been climbed with such minimal support and without oxygen being available for climbing.

Photography:  He sells his photographs to magazines and mountaineering publications.  He also uses them to illustrate his mountaineering presentations.  More of his photographs have been on the front cover of mountain books than those of any other photographer.  His work appears in his own book ‘Himalayan Climber – A photographic autobiography’.

During Scott's climbing career, his understanding of the culture and the people in the regions where he climbed grew as he formed strong bonds and relationships. This is particularly true of Nepal  and he felt he had to do something positive and purposeful for the people of that country. While he saw them as "emotionally" wealthy, they had little infrastructural wealth such as educational opportunities, access to primary health care or clean water systems. To further these aims he founded the charity Community Action Nepal and spends much of his time fundraising for this cause, especially from giving public lectures. Scott is also an advocate of Responsible Tourism. He noticed that many agencies who provide porters for climbing expeditions exploit their Nepali staff. He found out that one agency that he had been using was not paying any wages to the Sherpas, saying that they were lucky to have the opportunity of getting tips from foreigners. Following this discovery in 1989, Scott resolved to set up his own trekking agency vowing to pay the porters and other staff double the going rate and to improve working conditions. Porters' loads were reduced and clothing purchased to combat the cold and rain.

A cheque for £30.000 was presented to Dr. Jaquie Woods of the Cancer Research facility at Ninewells

More details are posted under the Marafun Button

Thursday Night the 6th of Nov. saw Forfar Rotary Club host an Entertainments Night for the Handicapped and Disabled Club. Community Services Convenor Alan White spoke on behalf of the Rotary to explain that the event has for many years been a fixture in the Rotary calendar. The usual format of Bingo, Quiz and Sing a Longs to the accompaniment of accordianist Alan Morrison soon set the pattern for the night. No such night would be complete without a supper served up by the Rotarians, a real taste of Forfar with bridies and cakes etc. from the bakery of Rotarian Bill Mc Laren.

President Jim Nicoll was in attendence but after hearing his efforts at singing was persuaded by MC for the night Ian Findlay to stick to miming. At the conclusion of the night with the singing of Auld Lang Syne it was debatable to know which club enjoyed the evening the most. Rotarian Len Williamson was most impressed as he now know how to play Bingo.