Bronco Lane

Major Michael Patrick "Bronco" Lane, MM, BEM (22 July 1945 – 22 March 2024) was a British Army officer and author, known for his climbing expeditions which led to his summiting Mount Everest in 1976.

Background Born in 1945 in Manchester, Lane attended the Ullswater Outward Bound School in 1960 and joined Junior Leaders Royal Artillery in 1961. He volunteered for service in the 7th Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery in 1964 and was selected for the Special Air Service in 1967. He fought in the Aden Emergency, Oman and in Northern Ireland where he was awarded the Military Medal.

Mountaineering

Bronco joined the Army Mountaineering Association (AMA) in 1968 and took part in AMA expeditions to the Canadian Arctic in 1972, Indian Himalayas in 1973, Nuptse, Nepal in 1975. After summiting Lane and Stokes were caught by bad weather and were forced to abandon their descent. The pair bivouacked in a snow hole near the South Summit for the night. Stokes tried and failed to attach an oxygen bottle to his face-mask. Lane had to remove his glove to attach the bottle but after an hour his hand was frozen. After the night in the open, both men's feet were badly frostbitten. Back home in England, doctors attempted to save the men's toes but the condition of their feet deteriorated in the summer heat. Eventually, he felt a tingling sensation in his foot and after removing his dressing found maggots in one of his toes which he removed with a cocktail stick. Lane lost his toes as well as the thumb and top halves of his fingers on his right hand.

Lane continued mountaineering, climbing in the Canadian Rockies in 1978–79 and Mount Kenya in 1983. In 1984 he led an expedition to Everest Tibet and was deputy leader of the Joint Services Everest Nepal 1992. He has also been involved with several Antarctica expeditions. The toes were not in good enough condition to be exhibited but the fingers were placed on display on a wooden plinth.

Works Project Alpha. Military Mountaineering – A History of Services Mountaineering, 1945 – 2000. Hayloft Publishing.