Award-winning mountaineer receives honorary degree at Buxton graduation ceremony 

Award-winning British mountaineer and author Mick Fowler has received an honorary degree from the University of Derby at its awards ceremony in Buxton. 

Mick, who is from Matlock in Derbyshire, has spent almost 50 years discovering and scaling spectacular unclimbed mountains and was awarded a King Albert Mountain award for his ‘outstanding contribution to mountaineering’ in 2012. 

He has climbed all the classic north faces in Europe and has made notable first ascents in Peru, Nepal, India, Pakistan, China and Canada and is one of only four climbers to have been awarded the Piolet d’Or – mountaineering’s most prestigious award – three times.  

Voted the ‘Mountaineers’ Mountaineer’ in a poll of his peers by The Observer, Mick managed to fit in most of his expeditions into his 30 days’ annual leave entitlement during a forty-year career with the HM Revenue and Customs.   

In 2017, within six months of retiring, Mick was diagnosed with cancer. Regarding this as just another challenge to overcome, he was back to climbing in the Himalayas in 2019. He made the first ascent of a sea stack off the Irish coast in 2023, and the first ascent of unclimbed Yawash Sar (6,298m) in Pakistan in 2024.  

Mick is also a past president of the Alpine Club, patron of the British Mountaineering Council and an award-winning author who has written three books about his exploits: Vertical Pleasure (1995), On Thin Ice (2005) and No Easy Way (2018).   

Mick became an Honorary Doctor of the University (HonDUniv) at the ceremony at the University’s Buxton Campus in the Devonshire Dome, alongside hundreds of University of Derby graduates. 

He said: “It is a great honour to be recognised by the University in this way, and I hope that my story will help inspire and motivate future generations of students.” 

Professor Kathryn Mitchell CBE DL, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Derby, said: “Mick’s incredible story demonstrates dedication, fearlessness and commitment, and it is an honour to recognise his achievements with an honorary degree from the University of Derby.   

“Graduation is a time to celebrate, and our Award Ceremonies are an important opportunity to reflect upon all that our students have achieved during their time with us. We are consistently impressed by the commitment to make a positive impact, and we are so proud of everyone who is going to be graduating.”