Burke, Mick

There is no information about the early years of life. Born in Wigan, UK. He gained initial skills in mountaineering, starting with climbing in the Lake District . In 1964, Bonatti went to Petit Drew , and in 1965 he repeated the American directives ( English American Direct , and Royal Robbins ) to the same peak - the most difficult routes in the Alps . In 1966, along with Chris Bonington, Mick was a member of the team documenting for the media climbing the new route on the Eiger by team, and in the same year he became a member of one of the largest rescue operations in the Alps - the rescue of two German climbers - Heinz Ramisch and Herman Sridell, who found themselves in a hopeless position 250 meters from the top while climbing the wall of Petit Drew, and spent ten days on a tiny shelf (the largest media outlets covered the rescue operation, led by Gary Hamming, and Rene Demezon also took part in it) ^{[1] [2] [3]} .

In 1967, Burke, together with Dougal Heston, made a winter ascent to Matterhorn along the northern wall ^[4] , and in 1968, as part of the Anglo-Argentinean team, made one of the first attempts to climb Cerro Torre ^[5] . A year later, Burke became the first of the British (with Rob Wood) to take the route to El Capitan ( Yosemite , USA ) ^[1] .

Beginning in 1970, the time for climbing in the Himalayas began for Burke. In 1970, he was invited by Chris Bonington to participate in the expedition to Annapurna along the southern wall, in which he did a lot for its success ^[6] . In 1972, as part of the British expedition of Bonington, Burke stormed Everest on the southwest wall (together with Doug Scott and Dougal Heston then managed to reach a height of 8300, after which they had to retreat) ^[7] , and, finally, in 1975 took part in a new expedition to the third pole along the impregnable southwest wall, which, this time ended in success - on September 24, Doug Scott and Dougal Haeston reached the summit. Two days later, on September 26, it was decided to re-climb, which was reached by two assault ligaments - Peter Boardman and Sherpa Petemba, and Mick Burke with Martin Boysen. Boysen stepped off the route due to problems with oxygen equipment, and Burke decided to continue climbing alone to try to take unique shots of the final part of the climb. The last time he was seen was Bordman and Petemba during the descent from the summit after a successful ascent, when, in the conditions of worsening weather, Miku had about a hundred meters to the summit along a simple ridge route (he even suggested that Bordman and Petemba return to capture their ascent, but from - due to problems with oxygen equipment at Boardman, climbers agreed to start a joint descent a little lower, but this meeting did not take place). Mick Burke was missing, presumably, already during the descent from Everest as a result of the breakdown or collapse of the snow cornice . Neither his body nor any of his traces were found ^{[8] [1] [9]} .

After the death of the climber , the BBC and the Royal Geographical Society established the Mick Burke Award , awarded for the best amateur documentary in the Outdoor genre ^{[10] [11]} .

• Maurice Isserman, Stewart Weaver. Fallen Giants. A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes. - Yale University Press. - USA, 2008. - 592 p. - ISBN 978-0-300-11501-7 .