Edinburgh Festival Fringe: The Tao of Everest
Listed under theatre in the Festival Fringe guide and described as “an emotional and uplifting storytelling experience” the Tao of Everest is basically a climbing lecture and something I would more expect to find at a Mountain Festival than at the Fringe. Or perhaps performer/speaker Ian Woodall is just ahead of the field and we can expect to see a plethora of outdoor talks at arts festivals in the future. Andy Kirkpatrick would certainly raise more laughs than some of the comedians I’ve seen in Edinburgh.
Ian Woodall was leader of the controversial 1996 South African Everest Expedition and reached the summit of Everest via the South-East Ridge. Since then he has climbed the mountain again from the north side and been back there to lay to rest the body of a friend who died high on the mountain. There have been a number of failed attempts too and next year he’s going back to try an ascent without bottled oxygen.
Looking at the Tao of Everest website it appears that this presentation is usually designed for corporate events to inspire “leadership” in business people. There are somewhat over-the-top comments from organisations from Microsoft to the Atomic Energy Authority and Greater Manchester Police. I wonder if Ian Woodall has altered his presentation for an arts audience rather than a business one. The quotes on the website were all in the Edinburgh talk so maybe every audience hears the stories the same way. Only a few people had wandered through the rain to the talk on the night I went (it is a rather out of the way venue) but maybe other shows were better attended. The walk away from the bright lights of the city centre was worthwhile though as Ian Woodall gave a good performance, using a few simple props plus snippets of music, recorded speech and slides. He’s a demonstrative and entertaining speaker, moving around and using his body to show distance, slope angles, emotions and more. The stories of the climbs were interwoven with his personal love story (which was perhaps a little too sentimental – my stepdaughter certainly thought so) and the emotional effects of losing friends on the mountain. There was some humour mixed in with the seriousness and tragedy too. He puts a great deal into the performance, which lasts two hours plus extra time for questions. Doing this for 25 nights without a break, as he is, sounds exhausting. But then so does climbing Everest. The mountain looks wonderful in the pictures of course but hearing about long snow slogs up and down, up and down, carrying gear, installing camps, building a structure to allow for a summit attempt, doesn’t make me want to be there. I’ve trekked to Everest Base Camp and climbed Kala Patar at dawn to watch the sunrise but that’s as far as I would want to go. I have great admiration for those who go further, whether experienced mountaineers or paying clients. Ian Woodall makes it all to clear what the risks are and how hellish big mountain climbing can be. It’s clearly addictive though. It must be. He’s going back.
Photo info: Everest from Kala Patar. Canon EOS 300D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm @28mm, 1/100@F8, ISO 100, raw file converted to JPEG in Lightroom 2.4
Hi Chris,
ReplyDeleteI know you are not a "climber" but a walker, however you have climbed things in the past, maybe not mountains though. Have you ever had asperations to climb Everest?
Tony, no. I have done some roped snow and ice climbing and I regularly use ice axe and crampons in the Scottish mountains in winter but the idea of spending many weeks climbing one side of one mountain has never appealed. I prefer to keep moving on. I took winter climbing and ski touring courses back to back many years ago and whilst I enjoyed the climbing it was the skiing that hooked me. I still prefer mountains I can ski up!
ReplyDeleteDid Woodall mention much about the man he let die on the summit? I hope he at least gave credit to Bruce for the photos he is using. Doubt it.
ReplyDeleteHow could this ever be considered "Fringe"? Apparently Mr. Woodall's shadow has not preceded him.
ReplyDeleteIt's very sad that Ian Woodall wishes to use death as a motivator and a mechanism for making money. If 'burying' his friend was done as an act of friendship, then surely better done with quiet reverence and humility.
ReplyDeleteBruce Herrod was mentioned and pictured frequently during the talk, with effusive praise.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised this was at the Fringe but it was a performance and not just a talk. I can't imagine that the past of anyone who appears at the Fringe would be a consideration as to whether they appeared. I would think there are plenty of other performers with controversies in their past.
Mountaineers often talk of the death of their friends in lectures and books. Ian Woodall did speak with reverence and certainly gave the impression that he was very affected by the deaths he described.