The Scholars’ Masterclass season concluded last term as we welcomed two speakers to the College to deliver fascinating talks on their respective subjects. In April, it was wonderful to welcome back Ben Heason to talk about his experience climbing Angel Falls and, in May, we were delighted to welcome Old Viking Professor Richard Smith to speak about relationalism.
Ben Heason, Thursday 20 April
Ben is one of the UK’s leading climbers and has been climbing full time for over 20 years. He is world-renowned for his bold climbing on routes, as well as his impressive exploits on big wall expeditions around the globe, and has climbed over 10,000 routes throughout the UK and across the world.
In this Masterclass, Ben described the first free-climbed ascent of the 1000m Angel Falls wall, the world's highest waterfall, which he and a group of climbers did in 2005. The presentation covered the entire adventure – from planning to living on the wall, where the group spent 14 consecutive nights sleeping on hanging beds suspended from the overhanging wall.
Angel Falls had previously attracted adventurous climbers for decades, but all previous attempts to free-climb the main wall of the world’s highest waterfall had ended in failure. However, in his Masterclass, Ben spoke of how the team navigated the challenges and obstacles (including going to the toilet!) before going on to succeed with the climb. It is still referred to today as ‘one of the finest achievements by British rock climbers on foreign soil’.
Professor Richard Smith, Tuesday 9 May
It was wonderful to welcome back Professor Richard Smith back to the College. Since leaving in 1967, Professor Smith studied at university and obtained a master’s degree. After working as a barrister, he started to work on a new and recent social science – relationalism – of which he has written a book on.
As well as speaking about the subject of relationalism, Professor Richard Smith spoke to the Scholars about his time at Shiplake College. He also spent time getting to know those present, which included learning about the aspirations of the pupils from Year 7 through to Year 13.
Wise and experienced, Professor Smith also shared many pieces of advice to the pupils, emphasising the importance of life skills and the relationships with different people. This was linked to the field of relationalism which focusses on those relationships with people and how one could reorientate the components in a relationship for a better outcome.
