Ian Woodall

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Ian Woodall (born August 17, 1956) is the leader of the first South African Everest Expedition in 1996. The expedition was sponsored by Johannesburg newspaper The Sunday Times, but its support of the expedition was later withdrawn. He is married to Cathy O'Dowd, a fellow member of the expedition, and is currently living in Andorra in the Pyrenees.^[1]

Contents 1 Controversy 2 External Links 3 Reference 4 Further Reading

[edit] Controversy

American journalist Jon Krakauer, who was a member in New Zealander Rob Hall's commercial Everest expedition in 1996, was critical of Woodall's personality and behavior on the mountain. He later wrote a best-selling book Into Thin Air recounting the May 10 Everest disaster. His criticisms of Woodall include:

• Woodall's dictatorial and manipulative character had caused three experienced South African climbers Edmund February, Andy de Klerk, and Andy Hackland, and the expedition doctor, Charlotte Noble, to resign from the expedition.^[2]

• Woodall lied about his climbing credentials prior to the expedition.^[3]

• Woodall falsified his military service by claiming that he had commanded the elite "Long Range Mountain Reconnaissance Unit" (which did not exist at all) of the British army, and served as an instructor at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst, none of which was true.^[4]

• Woodall insisted that expedition member de Klerk, who held dual citizenship, enter Nepal on his South African passport or he would not be allowed on the expedition. It turned out that Woodall himself did not even hold a South African passport and entered Nepal on his British passport.^[5]

• Facing international scandal, Woodall banished Ken Vernon and Richard Shorey, two reporters from the expedition's sponsor, The Sunday Times, whose presence and accompaniment were required as part of the sponsorship contract. ^[6] Woodall later had a "blood-chilling exchange" with Ken Owen, an editor from The Sunday Times, and had largely precipitated the Sunday Times' withdrawal of support.^[7]

• Woodall refused to coordinate the mountain traffic and cooperate with other expeditions to avoid gridlock on the summit ridge, and declared that "[they] would go to the top whenever they damn well please." ^[8]

• After the May 10 disaster, Woodall refused to lend the distressed Hall team the South African expedition's powerful radio to coordinate rescue effort, although he was aware that people were dying on the summit. ^[9]

[edit] External Links

The Tao of Everest, Ian Woodall Official Website

[edit] Reference

1. ^ http://www.dispatch.co.za/2001/11/27/easterncape/ANINE.HTM
2. ^ Krakauer, Into Thin Air, p.96; http://www.dispatch.co.za/2001/11/27/easterncape/ANINE.HTM
3. ^ Into Thin Air, p.96
4. ^ Into Thin Air, p.96
5. ^ Into Thin Air, p.97
6. ^ Into Thin Air, p.97
7. ^ Into Thin Air, p.99
8. ^ Into Thin Air, p.142
9. ^ Into Thin Air, p.218

[edit] Further Reading

• Krakauer, Jon. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster (Villard 1997). ISBN 0-679-45752-6
• O'Dowd, Cathy & Ian Woodall Everest: Free To Decide (Struik Publishers 1998) ISBN 1-86872-101-9