Hong Kong mountaineer-turned-businessman on close encounters with death
Simon McCartney was once an accomplished mountaineer, and his profound friendship with fellow climber Jack Roberts – as well as their arduous expeditions in Alaska – is explored in his memoir, The Bond
LEARNING THE ROPES I was born in London in 1955. My parents got divorced when I was six and both remarried, so I had two sets of parents and four opinions to weigh in on any issue. I spent weekends with my father and weeks with my mother. My dad thought a bit of adventure would do me good and introduced me to a group that organised rock climbing, potholing and caving.
From the age of 14, I climbed every weekend, beginning with a small cliff near London and then hitchhiking to Wales or the Peak District with ropes in my backpack. I liked being in the mountains, but it was the risk that I really liked, and I used it as a measure against my peers. I enjoyed doing better than others – I’m unremittingly competitive.
Just before my A-levels, I had a spectacular accident: I fell 40 feet onto the road in Cheddar Gorge and fractured a couple of vertebrae. I was in plaster from my groin to my neck. With nothing else to do, I inadvertently did better in my A-levels than I would have otherwise.
Dave left and I hung around, and that was when I met an American climber, Jack Roberts, in a Chamonix bar. It was a meeting that would change my life. We decided to go to the UK and climb for a week. Over a beer one night, he convinced me that I shouldn’t go back to the Alps the following summer and instead go to Alaska with him and make first ascents. Alaska was still relatively untouched compared with the Alps, which sounded great to me.