OGDEN -- British mountaineer and author Stephen Venables appealed to all audiences Friday at Mound Fort Junior High School.
Surrounded by a small number of students in the band room, he shared his insights on life and writing. Later, more than 750 packed the auditorium for captivating tales of conquering Mt. Everest and other adventures around the globe.
Finally, a small group of curious students were flabbergasted when he showed them his frostbitten left foot. As hands flew to mouths, a dozen cell phones snapped photos.
"Ahhh, there you are. There is not a lot to see," Venables said with his cheerful and polished British accent. "Can I put my sock back on now?"
Venables, the first Briton to climb Mt. Everest without bottled oxygen, was the guest speaker at the Ogden School Foundation's Fall Author Event. It marked the conclusion of his first visit to Utah.
"It was all new and exciting," said Venables, who also found time to climb nearby Mt. Lewis on Wednesday. "It was an incredible event, very professional. It had a great sense of occasion. It was nice to be at the center of that."
Before Venable's arrival, 250 students at Ogden and Ben Lomond high schools wrote an essay on surviving/overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles in life. Weber State University English professors selected 10 winners, five from each school, who were honored Thursday night.
Those 10 students -- Kate Davis, Mariah Gilber, Oscar Meza, Rebecca Rabe, Andrew Ray, Nichole Lagersuist, Trent McLelland, Nhat Nguyen, Jose Perez and Clinton Tibbitts -- also received signed copies of Venables' book "Voices From the Mountains" and given 45 minutes with him to discuss writing or ask questions.
Venables had previously read the students' essays and asked them if it was easy or a struggle to write their essays.
Perez admitted he had recycled a paper he had written for another contest, which prompted laughter. As other students shared about their essays, insights were exchanged and Venables related personally to many of their experiences.
The upbeat and personable Venables said visiting with the students was enormously fun.
"Often I give lectures to an audience and they all disappear at the end of the show. So it has been a real treat to meet these very talented young people, some of whom have had very tough experiences, far tougher than I have ever had, and they were brave enough to write about them," Venables said.
Clinton Tibbitts, a student at Ben Lomond, wrote an essay about the trials of moving to a new area. The experience with Venables inspired him.
"How often do you get to have a one-on-one experience with a world-famous author?" Tibbitts said. "It was great to have someone with that experience give us insight on something we wrote."
Venable's parting advice: "When opportunities come up, don't run away from them. Seize every opportunity."
More than 750 students from Mound Fort, Ben Lomond, Ogden High and Project Surpass schools squeezed into the auditorium for a slide show presentation by Venables, which included a close-up of his black frozen toes before amputation, followed by a brief question-and-answer session. One student asked him to identify his greatest adventure.
"My greatest adventure was raising a family, which was far more challenging than any mountain."
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