TALK: 'Alex MacIntyre and the birth of Light and Fast Alpinism' with John Porter

One Day as a Tiger: Alex MacIntyre and the Birth of Light and Fast Alpinism by John Porter

Fundraising Lecture for the refurbishment of the Alex MacIntyre and Don Whillans Memorial Huts. If you weren't able to make the lecture in person, we have recorded it and made it available to people online to continue raising money. You can purchase a fundraising ticket and you will be sent the link to the recording to watch at your own leisure.

The incredible and inspiring illustrated talk that saw the lecture theatre at Plas y Brenin filled to capacity is now available to watch on line for the first time. Last presented to 2000 people at the Palace of Culture in Warsaw, John’s lecture traces the transformation of alpine and greater ranges mountaineering from traditional ‘siege tactics’ to ‘alpine style’ – considered a purer, more dangerous, and more committed form of climbing, and defined by some as climbing with less than you’re mentally comfortable with.

Drawing from his award-winning book ‘One Day as a Tiger’, John describes one of the most incredible periods in the history of greater ranges mountaineering, in which he and Alex MacIntyre were central characters. It was a time when enduring international east/west relationships were forged despite the cold war, and standards and achievements were transformed, but at the cost of the lives of about half of his climbing friends. Commitment doesn’t come any bigger than that to something that can only be described as a ‘sport’ if we use Ernest Hemingway’s definition.

Ever more difficult routes were accompanied by challenging logistics, such as: stretching expedition budgets through currency exchanges on the black market; being smuggled on forged papers through the USSR to pre-invasion Afghanistan; doctoring a permit to climb a different mountain; and selling kit to pay for the journey home.

2026 is the 50th anniversary year of the Colton/MacIntyre route on the Grand Jorasses and also the 50th of the winter exchange with the Poles, which began the short but incredibly productive relationship of Alex MacIntyre and Voytek Kurtyka.

Fundraising for our huts

Alex served a remarkable apprenticeship in the Scottish mountains in winter, and the hut that commemorates him remains a perfect base for many adventures summer and winter.

The proceeds from this illustrated talk will raise funds for the refurbishment of the Alex MacIntyre Hut in Onich, and the Don Whillans Hut at the Roaches.

About Alex MacIntyre

Alex MacIntyre was described by Reinhold Messner as the purist of all Himalayan climbers. In his short career of seven Himalayan and one Andean expedition, he never climbed with more than three other companions – small self-reliant teams with no support.

His legacy of alpine style firsts include: two 8000m faces never before attempted – the East Face of Dhaulagiri and the SW face of Shishapangma - as well as technically demanding and unrepeated routes such as the South Buttress/Face of Changabang and the NE Face of Koh-y-Bandaka. Returning from the latter in 1977, he and Tobin Sorenson made the first alpine style ascent of the Eiger Direct in three days. Alex said; ‘it was a doddle after Bandaka’.

In the 50th anniversary year of the first ascent of the game changing Colton/MacIntyre couloir on the Grand Jorasses, John Porter describes his four expeditions with Alex on which they made six first ascents until their fatal attempt of a new route on the South Face of Annapurna, where Alex died, picked off the face by a single stone.