Bronco Lane

Major Michael Patrick Bronco Lane was a British Army officer and author, born in Manchester on 22 July 1945, who served in the Special Air Service and was awarded the Military Medal. He joined the Army Mountaineering Association in 1968 and took part in expeditions to the Canadian Arctic, the Indian Himalayas and Nuptse before joining the 1976 British-Nepalese Army expedition to Everest, which put him and fellow SAS soldier Brummie Stokes on the summit on 16 May. Caught by bad weather on the descent, they spent the night in a snow hole near the South Summit and both suffered severe frostbite, Lane losing his toes and part of his right hand. He kept climbing, led an expedition to Tibetan Everest in 1984, and died of complications of Alzheimer's disease on 22 March 2024.