Local mountaineer and author John Porter is giving a lecture Moving Mountains at Theatre By The Lake in Keswick.

John told the history and style of a generation of climbers including the poignant story of the untimely death of a leading figure of British mountaineering: Alex MacIntyre. Tackling many of the questions that all climbers grapple with today; luck, friendship and the frailty of life.

Alex MacIntyre was a rising star in the mountaineering world in the 1970’s.  He led a revolution, a new style which enabled small teams to climb the highest peaks by the hardest routes. Minimal equipment, no oxygen and no umbilical cord of fixed ropes – the secrets to light and fast climbing.  The lecture tells the tale of an unknown generation ‘that nearly climbed itself to extinction.’

Alex died on Annapurna aged 28, but his vision and radical equipment designs survive in today’s overly commercialised mountain arena.