wildernessLectures
About Us
Since 1987 Wilderness Lectures has brought to Bristol the best and most exciting adventure lecturers around.
All are all widely travelled explorers and leaders at their own activity. They range from world-famous individuals to lesser-known adventurers but all are united in wonderful pictures and great stories from adventures all over the world
Our subjects range across the great adventure sports, like Himalayan mountaineering, as well as the full spread of minority sports and madcap activities; long distance walking and cycling, canoeing, trekking, ballooning, diving, caving, rafting and sailing all feature in our programmes. If someone has a good story with beautiful illustrations and human, adventure or environmental interest, then we'll present it as part of our programme.
Each year we allocate one lecture as The Ginette Harrison Memorial Lecture in memory of our friend Ginette Harrison. Ginette studied medicine at the University of Bristol and later specialized in high altitude medicine. At age 25 she climbed Denali, the highest mountain in North America. It was the first of her series of climbs of the highest peaks on all seven continents, which included Mount Everest on 7 October 1993, making her only the second British woman to climb Everest, after Rebecca Stephens.
On 1 December 1995, she became the third woman, and the first British woman, to climb all seven continental summits inclusive of Mount Kosciuszko, the highest mountain in mainland Australia. On the same date, she also became the fifth woman, and the second British woman (behind Rebecca Stephens), to climb all seven continental summits inclusive of Carstensz Pyramid in Australasia.
On 18 May 1998, she climbed Kangchenjunga by its north face, making her the first woman to have reached the summit of the world's third highest mountain. Her obituary in The Guardian quotes her as "She watched in sorrow as other climbers she knew were lost and wrote of her historic ascent: "Over the years four women had died while attempting to climb Kangchenjunga and it made me appreciate all the more how lucky I was to make the first female ascent and return safely."
She later became the first British woman to summit Makalu on 22 May 1999. To our sorrow, she died on 24 October 1999 under an avalanche when climbing Dhaulagiri, the seventh highest mountain in the world.
At the memorial lecture, we ask our audience to contribute to the activities of the Shiva Charity, which builds and maintain schools in Nepal, one of which is name after her. We donate an equivalent sum to Shiva, ourselves.
(With thanks to Wikipedia for some of the details above)
Our audience ranges from armchair to active adventurers, from school-students to the retired. All are united by a sense of wonder and a willingness to open their minds to the experience of others; all are explorers in some way, whatever their age or background. If you live within travelling distance of Bristol and this description fits you, then please get in contact with us and ask to be added to our mailing list. If you think that you have a lecture that you would like to present, don't hesitate to contact us and tell us about yourself.
In the past, we have also offered our own annual cash award, the "Wilderness Award". This is currently paused following the change in organisers.
Wilderness Lectures is now: Asher Flatt, Emily Cant and Johnnie Ball