Mick Fowler's commendation video transcript

Mick Fowler

PROFESSOR KEITH MCLAY: And now we come to our honorary award. These are awarded by the University in recognition of somebody who has made a very significant contribution in their particular field.

I now have the great pleasure in inviting Doctor Andy Hooton, Head of the School of Sport and Exercise Science, to give the commendation for the conferment of an Honorary Doctor of the University to Mick Fowler.

Doctor Hooton.

DOCTOR ANDY HOOTON: Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Lord-Lieutenant, High Sheriff, Mayor of High Peak, Honoured guests, Graduands of 2024, and all our guests here today. It gives me great pleasure to be presenting today, Mick Fowler, for the award of Honorary Doctor of the University.

Mick is an award winning amateur mountaineer and author from Matlock, Derbyshire. He has spent almost 50 years finding and climbing spectacular unclaimed mountaineering routes. Only this September, he and his partner became the first people ever to ascend a remote mountain in Pakistan, 40 years after their first expedition to the country.

Born in Kingsbury, North London, Mick was introduced to rock climbing and mountaineering by his father when he was in his early teens. He has since become a pioneer of unusual and adventurous climbs, including ice streaks, sea stacks, chalk cliffs and remote safe cliffs. He has climbed all the classic north faces in Europe, made notable first descents in Peru, Nepal, India, Pakistan, China and Canada, and is widely acknowledged as one of the world's leading Alpine Style Himalayan mountaineers.

For almost 40 years, from 1977 to his retirement in 2017, Mick worked full time for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, fitting his expeditions into his 30 days' annual holiday leave. He relocated from London to Nottingham in the early 1990s, moving his family to Derbyshire and taking advantage of the opportunity to be to be closer to the countryside.

Mick is a legend amongst the international climbing community, known as one of the world's greatest amateur climbers. He was voted 'Mountaineers' Mountaineer' in a poll of his peers by the Observer in 2012. He was awarded the King Albert Mountain Award for his outstanding contribution to mountaineering, and he is one of only four climbers to have been awarded the Piolet d'Or, (mountaineering's most prestigious award) three times.

In 2017, within six months of retiring, Mick was diagnosed with cancer. Following life changing surgery in 2018, he showed extraordinary resilience and determination and was back climbing in the Himalayas in 2019. He has no plans to stop just yet. This September, he and his climbing partner Victor Saunders completed one of the best ascents the pair has completed together, becoming the first people ever to reach the 6258m summit of Yawash Sar in the Karakoram range in Pakistan.

Mick is a past president of the Alpine Club, patron of the British Mountaineering Council, and an award winning author who has written three books about his exploits. He has been married to his wife Nicola for over 30 years and they have two children. Mick is celebrating with Nicola here today.

Chancellor, in recognition of his perseverance, determination and outstanding contribution to the world of rock climbing and mountaineering, we are delighted to award Mick Fowler the honorary degree of Doctor of the University.

MICK FOWLER: Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Lord Lieutenant, High Sheriff, Mayor of High Peak, Honoured guests, Graduands of 2024, and all our guests here today. Thank you so much for those kind words and indeed for this wonderful honour. I'm so very grateful, not just for this invitation to receive an honorary degree, but to be invited to share the occasion with so many gifted individuals that I've had the pleasure of meeting today.

My interest in the outdoors was born when my father introduced me to hill walking and scrambling in the upland areas of the UK. After more than 50 years of exploring mountain ranges around the world, it feels a little like coming back to my roots, to be given this honour in an upland area of the UK, back where it all began.

Over the intervening years, much has changed. The popularity of the outdoors has increased many fold. The University of Derby has been established and its degree programmes relating to outdoor education and sustainability have become ever more relevant. It is a great honour for me to be associated with a university committed to introducing new generations to the joys of the outdoors and preserving what we have for future generations.

To those of you graduating today and embarking on your careers, I think back to my early years when I was starting uncertainly out on the path of having to earn an income. It was a time of mixed emotions. Was I doing the right thing? Was I working in an area that played to my strengths? Would I enjoy what I was planning to do? These thoughts are only natural, but as new graduates you have fresh knowledge to put to good use.

Opportunities will arise and are there for the taking. You never know where they might lead. For me, a life changing opportunity to climb in the Himalaya came in 1984. I took it and it turned out to be a disaster. An experience that I described afterwards as six weeks of flies, fleas and failure. But I tried again, and my next trip was a success such that it led to a way of life and an appreciation of the outdoors that was to endure and become a major part of my life.

Your lives too, will no doubt have ups and downs. But of one thing I can be certain, the education that you have received at the University of Derby will stand you in good stead and be a valuable building block for your life ahead. I wish you all the very best in whichever path you ultimately decide to follow.

Mick Fowler's commendation video

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