Joe Brown

fA characteristic of most of Joe's expeditions is that it is the company that matters, not the objective. Certainly charismatic objectives and new routes add appeal, but despite his immediate success on Kangchenjunga, large expeditions to the highest peaks have never really held the attraction for Joe that they have for some mountaineers such as Sir Chris Bonnington. The expedition to Thalay Sagar (22,650ft.; 6904m.) in 1982 was typical. Only four climbers were involved - they all knew each other, and were not relying on commercial sponsorship to pay for the trip. It was thus more like an extended holiday with a group of friends — on this occasion Mo Anthoine, Clive Rowlands, Malcolm Howells and Bill Barker. The mountain itself was unclimbed, and their selected route, on the north flank, looked as though it had a fair amount of technically difficult climbing in the upper sections. They approached via the glacier from which the Ganges emerges, which is, for that reason, a place of pilgrimage for Hindus. The roads were crowded and busy right to the glacier snout where a hermit held sway over the emerging river. The expedition established base camp higher up, and then climbed through an icefall to reach the back of the cwm. From advanced base camp here they ascended a long steep snow couloir that eventually brought them to a col on the ridge that links Thalay Sagar to Briguparth. Another camp was established at this col. Although ropes were fixed to this point above they climbed alpine style, without fixed ropes and camps. The ridge proved far from easy, with pitch after pitch of V.S. standard climbing, and little respite. Eventually a small snow patch provided just enough space for the final camp to be established. Joe until now had done nearly all the leading, and was feeling tired from the effort he had expended. It looked as if one more day would bring them to the summit. The following day Mo was feeling unwell and remained at the camp, but the other four set off up the snow ridge. Near the top they reached what they thought would be the final obstacle, a steep wall with an overhanging crack rising from its base. This looked hard. Joe had been seconding, but at this point the others all declined the lead. Joe put in a final big effort to overcome the crack and reached a ledge above. From here the obvious way ahead was a traverse along the ledge to an easy looking corner crack, but Joe felt he had done his share. He called down for back-up. But nobody came forward. Perhaps they were diffident because they thought that if Joe was now calling for assistance what lay ahead of him must be harder than the crack he had just surmounted with great difficulty! Without support Joe had no options left. He retreated and they returned to their last camp. Overnight the weather broke, and they all descended the following day. The weather continued bad for the next four days. The fixed ropes soon disappeared under snow and after sitting out storms on the glacier for several days more they retired from the mountain. Joe felt cheated - he knew that they had almost finished the route, and the summit was within their grasp - indeed, more help when it was needed or just one more fine day would have made all the difference. He and Mo resolved to return.

The next year they returned alone, hoping to re-use their fixed ropes and quickly regain their high point. This time they brought a camera loaned by the BBC to record their progress. Things were very different this year. The couloir was much deeper in snow, and their ropes from the previous year had disappeared under maybe twenty or thirty feet of fresh powder. Excavating them was out of the question, so new rope was fixed as they made slow upward progress for about 500 feet. Here they left the camera and other equipment overnight and returned to their camp at the base of the couloir. Overnight the weather deteriorated, and a storm hit them. It snowed heavily and continuously. Eventually Joe concluded that the monsoon must have arrived unusually early, and that further climbing that season would be out of the question. They decided to abandon their attempt, but there was a small matter of a very expensive BBC film camera 500ft. up the couloir. They tossed a coin and Joe lost. Reluctantly he climbed the snow filled gully, throwing things down to Mo and eventually returning with the camera. They left, disappointed. Later that year the mountain was climbed for the first time.

In July 1984 Joe was involved in the second outside broadcast from the Old Man of Hoy in Orkney. By 1983 cameras had become much lighter and could be carried by the climbers rather than having to have a separate film team. This time Joe climbed with his daughter, Zoe, then a very bubbly 17 year old. She was an immediate hit with viewers, and from that sprang her career for the next few years as a children’s programme presenter. In the course of this programme Joe became friendly with Mike Begg a producer for the BBC. From t6his friendship a number of other programmes were born, the best remembered probably a series of short films entitled "Fishing the Hard Way", which brought together Joe’s two great loves, climbing and fishing. It involved Joe reaching some unlikely inaccessible fishing pools using climbing skills and techniques. A feature of the series was that he never seemed to catch a fish — at least not on camera, although he swears that he had more success when the cameras were off!

In 1983 Joe also took time out on an African holiday to climb Mt. Keyna.