Joe Tasker
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Joe Tasker (1948 - 1982) was one of the most talented British climbers during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Born in Hull on May 12, 1948 into a traditional Catholic family, he was one of ten children. He spent his early childhood in Port Clarence, Middlesbrough then attended Ushaw Seminary, County Durham between the ages of 13 and 20, in training to become a Jesuit priest. Fascinated by a book recounting harrowing tales of tragic attempts to climb the North Face of the Eiger, he started climbing in a nearby quarry in 1966.
After leaving the seminary he first worked as a dustman before studying sociology at Manchester University. He improved his climbing skills during this time, graduating from rock climbing in Britain to harder routes in the Alps. His regular climbing partner was Dick Renshaw, whom he had met at university. Together they climbed the North Face of the Eiger in the winter of 1975. This was followed later that year by the first ascent of the South-East ridge of Dunagiri (7066m), a Himalayan peak in the North-East corner of India. Running out of food and fuel on the descent, they were lucky to survive, although Dick Renshaw suffered frostbite in his fingers.
His first ascent in 1976 of the West Face of Changabang (6864m), which neighboured Dunagiri, saw his first partnership with Peter Boardman, and was widely acclaimed as a bold, magnificent feat of mountaineering. Both he and Boardman were invited to the K2 expedition led by Chris Bonington in 1978, which was abandoned after Nick Estcourt was killed in an avalanche. Following an unsuccessful attempt on Nuptse in the autumn of 1978, a small team consisting of Tasker, Boardman and Doug Scott made a first ascent of Kangchenjunga (at 8,598 m the third highest mountain in the world) from the North-West in 1979. A second attempt on K2 and a difficult Winter assault on the West Face of Everest both ended unsuccessfully.
In 1980 he met Maria Coffey, the girlfriend who wrote about her grief following his death in Fragile Edge (ISBN 0-89886-737-1). In 1981 he was part of the British team which made the first ascent of Kongur (7,649 m) in China, accompanied by Chris Bonington, Peter Boardman and Al Rouse. He disappeared with Boardman on May 17, 1982 on the unclimbed North-East Ridge of Everest. His body has never been found. The Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature was founded in memory of the two climbers.
[edit] Bibliography
- Everest the Cruel Way (1981, Methuen, ISBN 0-413-48750-4)
- Savage Arena (1982, ISBN 0-312-69985-9)
[edit] External links
- Dick Renshaw's Obituary of Tasker
- Voices from the Clarences Anne Davies interviews Joe Tasker, Joe Tasker slideshow & BBC Radio Cleveland's report of Joe Tasker's death
