UK Edition
John 'Brummie' Stokes, mountaineer - obituary
John "Brummie" Stokes, who has died aged 70, was an SAS mountain expert and part of a 28-man Army team which ascended Everest in 1976; despite losing all his toes to frostbite, he returned to tackle the summit a further three times.
Stokes’s obsession with the mountain had taken root during a 1975 expedition to the neighbouring peak of Nhuptse, which is 25,850 ft high to Everest’s 29,030 ft. Four men had died on that particular trip; but Stokes and his fellow SAS climbing partner, Michael “Bronco” Lane, were undeterred.
On May 14 1976, Stokes and Lane were established at Camp 6, at 27,000 ft, ahead of the planned ascent, with the Army Mountaineering Association, of Everest’s south-west face the following morning. That night, however, a severe storm made movement impossible. There were concerns that a prolonged stay at such high altitudes might weaken the pair, but they were keen to press on. “There’s only one way we’re going,” Stokes radioed, “and it’s not down.”
They set off early on the morning of the 16th, and by mid-afternoon had reached the summit, where they collapsed in a heap, shattered, surrounded by swirling snow. Yet the danger was far from over. At 28,000ft on the way down, the route became impassable owing to “white-out” weather conditions.
As their oxygen supplies began to run perilously low, they huddled down to make an improvised camp for the night. The mercury dropped to around minus 20C, made colder by the wind chill. “We scraped a little hole in the snow,” Stokes recalled. “Bronco hit me to wake me. I did the same to him. We were keeping each other alive.”
Stokes’s vision began to fail as agonising snow blindness set in. He tried to undo the valve in their last canister of oxygen, but his fingers were too weak for the task. Lane took it from him and removed his own gloves to open the valve. The decision saved their lives but cost Lane dearly, as he later had to have the five frostbitten finger-tips of his right hand amputated. Both men lost their toes.
The next morning, as they struggled from their bivouac site, they were met by the second pair to try for the summit, John Scott and Pat Gunson – who had expected to find them dead.
“We were overjoyed,” wrote Major MWH Day in his report on the expedition. “Tony [Col Streather, leader of the party] had tears in his eyes and I think most of us had lumps in our throats. 'That which was lost is found.’ ”
Having dosed the severely weakened pair with oxygen – and hot soup – Scott and Gunson began the descent that would last five days. Stokes left the mountain three-and-a-half stone lighter, but determined to return none the less. He and Lane were awarded the British Empire Medal.
The son of a factory worker, John Henry Stokes was born in the mining community of Hamstead, just outside Birmingham, on August 28 1945. As a child he was frequently in trouble for stealing. By the time he was 13 he had a gun. His mother, originally from Merthyr Tydfil, took John and his four siblings to Sunday school every week, but he would sneak out and smoke or swim in the rat-infested canal. But it was on a Sunday school “charabanc” outing to North Wales that he first climbed Snowdon.
At 17, on the advice of a judge, he enlisted in the Army, joining the Royal Green Jackets for three years. In 1966, after several attempts, he passed the selection course for the SAS; he learnt jungle fighting and mountain skills and over 19 years served in Borneo, Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong and Guyana as well as the Canadian Rockies, southern Germany and the Falklands. In 1978 he was liaison between Army and police in Northern Ireland.
While in Dhofar he was shot in the leg, necessitating the removal of a kneecap, but overcame the injury well enough to be chosen for the Nuptse summit attempt three years later.
After Everest came a long period of rehabilitation, as Stokes and Lane learnt to walk, run and climb again on what remained of their feet. Once Stokes was judged fit for service again, he took part in the Falklands campaign. In 1984 he was back at Everest, having prepared for the ascent via the mountain’s north face with an expedition to North America’s highest peak, Mount McKinley in Alaska, the previous year.
This time, however, the climb was to end in tragedy. An avalanche at their advanced base camp on April 3 killed one member of the team and left Stokes with a fractured neck. He left the Army the following year and obtained permission from the Chinese to attempt the north-east ridge, Everest’s only remaining un-climbed route, with a team of ex-SAS and top civilian climbers. Among the latter group were some of the most notable British mountaineers of the day, including Julian Vincent “Mo” Anthoine and Joe Brown.
Although the attempt had to be abandoned at 26,000 ft because of high winds, the team captured some of the best film footage yet recorded of Tibet and Everest. On a further attempt, in 1988, Russell Brice and Harry Taylor succeeded in crossing the perilous Three Pinnacles, thus completing the hitherto unconquered stretch. But Stokes, the expedition’s leader, could not accompany them on their bid for the summit; he had suffered a cerebral oedema and been evacuated home.
In 1991 Stokes founded the Taste for Adventure Centre in Credenhill, Herefordshire, providing activity days for underprivileged children, people with physical and learning disabilities, and the elderly. This enterprise became his passion.
Brummie Stokes published an autobiography, Soldiers and Sherpas: A Taste for Adventure, in 1988. In a foreword, the founder of the SAS, David Stirling, praised his courage, his loyalty to his companions and “moral guts”.
He was appointed MBE in 2004.
He is survived by his wife Lynn (née Knight), and by their two sons.
John Stokes, born August 28 1945, died January 10 2016