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06
Apr
Meet the man who conquered Everest to fund Starbeck's Claro Enterprises
This article is one of a series by subscriber and local contributor Paul Wade.
Baldersby man Chris Brown should write a book about his adventures. If he does, you will probably read a very modest account of his extraordinary accomplishments involving some of the world’s highest mountains and toughest environments.
He might mention the famous people he has met along the way, but mostly he will write about the reason he did it all in the first place: his charity, Starbeck-based Claro Enterprises.
Born in 1946 in Stoke-on-Trent, Chris dreams big. At the age of six, he vowed to climb Everest. As a young man he wanted to be a farmer. He was destined to achieve both ambitions.
Chris with fellow climbers and sherpas – and his Claro Enterprises flag.
The 1980s brought another dream, this time shared with his wife and two other families.
A close relation suffered a serious mental health problem and needed help to reintegrate into society.
Chris said:
We realised that freedom is not just a political thing, but also what you can lose when health – particularly mental health – fails.
So the group of friends decided to create a workshop in Harrogate where people facing these issues could meet, work and regain the essential freedoms they had lost.
Chris said:
It would be professional, properly managed, and undertake kit assembly or woodwork projects for local businesses.
Two men using Claro Enterprises' wood shop.
Claro Enterprises was launched in 1986, and registered as a charity in 1990. At its inception, only three people turned up. Now, more than 40 people are on the books and, over the years, hundreds more have passed through its doors. It is a story that has not escaped royal attention.
Chris said:
Princess Anne has visited twice, first in 1993, memorably asking if we had made our own plaque. When she returned in 2023, to what was now the charity’s fully owned building in Starbeck, we made sure that this time we had!
Despite an element of local authority funding and really positive support from a number of local businesses, such a project requires a serious, constant and long-term supply of money, and we realised early on that in the competitive charity market, fundraising projects have to stand out from the crowd.
Two plaques at Claro Enterprises commemorate Princess Anne's visits.
So Chris decided to climb the Matterhorn. Although physically very fit, he was armed only with a Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award earned 20 years previously, and had no experience of mountaineering.
But much more was to follow. After some serious training with Ripon Runners, his next adventure was the Everest Marathon. That involved a 15-day walk to Everest Base Camp (17,500 ft) and then a run back down.
Chris does it every other year.
Crossing a crevasse on Everest.
He then saw an advertisement calling for volunteers to join Doug Scott, the legendary British Everest pioneer, on a three-week attempt on Mount Vinson, Antarctica’s highest peak. Although he had never even donned crampons before, Chris was selected for the trip and he and Scott became lifelong friends.
This was to be the first in a series of climbs up the highest mountain in each of the seven continents, so naturally Asia’s highest peak – Everest – beckoned.
After two earlier attempts, during which climbing colleagues tragically died, the Claro Enterprises flag was finally unfurled at the summit of Everest on May 13, 1999.
One hour previously, on the Hillary Step, only 200 ft below the top, Chris had had tears in his eyes when he realised that after 46 years he was about to fulfil his childhood dream.
Twenty-seven years after that climb, the exhausting self-financed fundraising programme continues unabated.
Chris said:
The Marathon des Sables, which takes six days across the Sahara Desert, was tough – especially as you have to carry your own supplies!
Chris Brown and others competing in the six-stage, 250km Marathon des Sables in Morocco.
Aside from his work and fundraising adventures, Chris also served on Harrogate Borough Council for 29 years and was made an Alderman of the Borough.
He's now run 40 full marathons, and aged nearly 80 he says that "one more crack at London would be nice".
He may have retired from local politics, but he's still on the board of Claro Enterprises and is still actively fundraising, in tandem with running his farm at Baldersby.
And as for that book, it's difficult to imagine him ever having the time to write it.
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