Michael Lane

Getting to the top 2: the story of former pupil Michael Lane, Army Officer and mountaineer

Major Michael Patrick ‘Bronco’ Lane BEM, MM was born in 1945 in Manchester and attended St Gregory’s from 1956 to 1961.  He is a former British Army officer and author, known for his climbing expeditions, which led to him scaling Mount Everest in 1976.

Michael saw action in a number of war zones and in 1967 he was selected for the Special Air Service (SAS). He fought in the Aden Emergency, Oman and in Northern Ireland, where he was awarded the Military Medal.

In 1976, Corporal Michael Lane – as he was then – was given leave from the SAS to attempt an Army ascent of Everest. With his fellow SAS member and friend, Sergeant John “Brummie” Stokes, Lane reached Everest’s summit on 16th May in the first successful all-military ascent.

Lane and Stokes became the 51st and 52nd climbers to reach the 29,028 feet summit. They took the South Col route, pioneered in 1953 by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Tenzing, who were the first to conquer the peak. The first Britons to reach the top were Dougal Haston and Doug Scott, who made it in September 1975 climbing up the previously unconquered south-west face.

Chris Bonnington, one of Britain’s leading climbers at the time, praised the courage of Lane and Stokes. He said they had shown “tremendous determination” in view of the difficult weather besides all other hazards.

The Manchester Evening News carried a front-page story of the feat in its issue of 17th May, featuring photographs of both climbers and the mountain. The MEN went on to say:

“The push to the top was held up by the worst blizzard of the season on Friday night. If the two had not reached the summit yesterday [Sunday], they would have had to give up because of the physical strains of high altitude and meagre supplies of food, fuel and oxygen in the support camps.

“Stokes and Lane were the first of three summit assault teams with the expedition.”

The expedition was a joint British-Nepalese Army operation under the command of Lt. Col Tony Streather. Although they succeeded in putting two men on the summit, the expedition was marred by the death of Terry Thompson, a Marines’ captain, who died after falling into a crevasse at Camp 2.

After reaching the summit by mid-afternoon on the 16th, the pair then collapsed in a heap, shattered and surrounded by swirling snow. Yet the danger was far from over. At 28,000ft on the way down, the route became impassable owing to “white-out” weather conditions. As their oxygen supplies began to run perilously low, they had to abandon their descent and they huddled down to make an improvised camp for the night, bivouacking in a snow hole near the South Summit. The mercury dropped to around minus 20C, made colder by the wind chill. “We scraped a little hole in the snow,” Stokes recalled. “Bronco hit me to wake me. I did the same to him. We were keeping each other alive.”

Stokes’s vision began to fail as agonising snow blindness set in. He tried to undo the valve in their last canister of oxygen, but his fingers were too weak for the task. Lane took it from him and removed his own gloves to open the valve and attach it to Stokes’s face-mask, the procedure taking about an hour to complete. The decision saved their lives but cost Lane dearly, as he later had to have the five frostbitten finger-tips of his right hand amputated. After the night in the open both men’s feet were badly frostbitten.

The next morning, as they struggled from their bivouac site, they were met by the second pair to try for the summit, John Scott and Pat Gunson – who had expected to find them dead.

“We were overjoyed,” wrote Major MWH Day in his report on the expedition. “Tony [Col Streather, leader of the party] had tears in his eyes and I think most of us had lumps in our throats. ‘That which was lost is found.’ ”

Having dosed the severely weakened pair with oxygen – and hot soup – Scott and Gunson began the descent with them that would last five days. 

Stokes and Lane were awarded the British Empire Medal.

Back home in England doctors had unsuccessfully attempted to save the men’s toes but the condition of their feet had deteriorated. Both men lost their toes.

After Everest came a long period of rehabilitation, as Stokes and Lane learnt to walk, run and climb again on what remained of their feet.

In the tradition of SAS humour, Lane had his toes preserved and kept them behind the regimental mess. When contacted many years later by the National Army Museum regarding memorabilia from his ascent to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s historic first summit of Everest, Lane offered up his amputated frostbitten toes for exhibition.

Of his Everest ascent, Lane had this to say:

 “Our team had no prima donnas, and unselfishness was displayed to a very high degree. Unfortunately we lost Terry Thompson in a tragic accident, which marred our ascent. Losing a climbing companion is a stark reminder that you do not conquer mountains, but sneak up and down when nature has her back turned.”

Of Bronco Lane, General Michael Rose had this to say:

“Bronco Lane is an exceptional soldier whose spirit of adventure and readiness to take risks has led him to the most extreme and dangerous places on earth – including the summit of Mt. Everest.”

The above quote ably captures the spirit of Michael “Bronco” Lane, a soldier, adventurer, climber and author.

In spite of his physical disabilities, he continued mountaineering, climbing in the Canadian Rockies in 1978-79 and in Kenya in 1983, as well as in other parts of the world.

The nickname ‘Bronco’, by the way, was from the American western TV series Bronco Lane, which starred Ty Hardin.

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