Mick Burke

In this documentary first broadcast in 1993, Chris Bonington looks back at the first ever expeditions to conquer Mount Everest and the effect that the achievement of climbing the mountain had on climbing as a whole worldwide.

Record of the 1971 climbing expedition to Baffin Island by Doug Scott, Rob Wood, Steve Smith, Ray Gillies, Guy Lee and Mick Burke from England, Dennis Hennek and Phil Koch from the United States, and Candian Pat Baird. The team climbed first the north buttress of Mount Breidablik, which required eighteen pitches of nailing and hard free climbing, plus a bivouac in hammocks. Next, they tackled the 1200 meter-high east face of Mount Killabuk, which upper overhanging wall gave strenuous climbing that included a 30-metre pendulum. Finally, they ascended the 1000 meter-high south ridge of Mount Asgard to reach the unclimbed south summit. The following year, Scott and Hennek returned to Mount Asgard together with Paul Nunn and Paul ’Tut’ Braithwaite.