Bronco Lane, SAS soldier who lost all ten toes and a thumb on his descent from Everest – obituary
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Michael “Bronco” Lane, who has died aged 78, caught the imagination of the British public in May 1976 when he and another SAS soldier had a near-death experience after successfully climbing Mount Everest.
Lane and John “Brummie” Stokes had been chosen as the first climbing pair of a joint British Army-Nepalese Army Everest expedition, known as Exercise Sagamartha Won (Nepalese for “Goddess of the Sky”). Despite being confined to their tents by a blizzard, then hampered by the fresh snow fall, on May 16 they attained the summit.
They were then left with insufficient light to descend to Camp 6, a temporary top camp already occupied by the following pair of would-be summiteers and safety. In ever-worsening conditions and unable to see their way down, they had no choice but to halt and stay out for the night above 28,000 feet, a little below the South summit.
They had no tentage nor warm down clothing, and simply had to scrape divots in the snow, sit on their packs and make themselves as comfortable as possible with their chances of overnight survival questionable.
Both suffered hypothermia and Stokes, who had earlier removed his goggles, also became snow blind. Aware that sleep would be fatal, they worked hard at keeping each other awake and sharing their diminishing supply of oxygen.
It was when Lane removed a glove to change an oxygen cylinder that his hand was severely frostbitten, and he subsequently lost the ends of the fingers and thumb of his right hand; both men lost all 10 of their toes.
When dawn came, they were in no condition to move. Several hours later they were found by the next pair on their way to the summit, who immediately abandoned their attempt and assisted Lane and Stokes down to Camp 6 and thence to Camp 5 on the South Col, where further assistance awaited. Had Stokes and Lane not been found, death was perhaps only a matter of hours away. Certainly they would not have survived another night.Lane and Stokes were subsequently awarded the British Empire Medal.
“Bronco” Lane, nicknamed after a popular television cowboy show of the late 1950s and early 1960s, bore his Everest injuries with stoicism and humour. “I can stand closer to the bar than anyone else in the Regiment and as long as the armourer can always weld an extension onto the safety catch of my rifle I will be alright”.
His toes and finger tips have recently been conserved and remounted by the UCL Pathology Museum and are now on display in the National Army Museum in Chelsea.
Both Lane and Stokes had special boots made to accommodate their toelessness, and continued not only with Special Forces soldiering but also high altitude mountaineering. One colleague said, of Lane, “at least with no toes and his special boots we were now just about able to keep up with him”.
Michael Patrick Lane was born on July 22 1945 in Manchester to John Edward Lane, a Sapper in the Royal Engineers, and his wife Ellen; he also had a brother and two sisters.
Leaving school at the first opportunity, he enlisted as a boy soldier in the Junior Leaders Regiment of the Royal Artillery and was subsequently posted to 7 Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery (7 RHA). Here he passed “P” Company and went on to gain his Trained Operational Parachutist wings to become a paratrooper.
In 1964 he saw action with 7 RHA in the short-lived Radfan campaign north of Aden as the airborne gunners fired their 105mm Pack Howitzers in support of the troops engaged in fighting the dissident tribesmen in hard mountainous country.
In 1967, aged 22, he passed selection for 22 Special Air Service Regiment and with them he was to see action again in the early 1970s in the Dhofar War in the south-west Oman.
The SAS were committed by the British Government to support, in an ultimately successful campaign, the newly installed reformist Sultan Qaboos in the fight against Omani rebels, known as the Adoo, who were backed by the nearby People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen.
Lane completed a number of short four-month tours and, like all his comrades, was involved in a great many actions. Although the campaign gained little coverage at the time, the fighting was by no means low key. One colleague noted that early in the campaign they had 30 “contacts” with the enemy in just 10 days. Over some five years the SAS were involved in hundreds of contacts and some 20 SAS or attached personnel were killed and 60 wounded in action. From a total strength of just over 200, this was a heavy price.
His next operational posting was Northern Ireland, where he was involved in a gun battle with a number of IRA gunmen who were embarked upon a murder mission. Lane and another SAS soldier were shot and wounded, as was at least one terrorist, who eventually escaped; but a number of weapons were recovered and a potential murder victim’s life saved. For his part in this action Lane was awarded the Military Medal.
In 1980 Lane was present at the Iranian Embassy siege at Prince’s Gate in South Kensington. Although not on the assault party he was none the less an integral part of the team and in the aftermath was to be seen helping organise the London Fire Brigade in their heroic efforts to contain the resulting fire.
In 1982, during the Falklands War, Lane was one of a small band of SAS operatives who were secreted into Chile armed with the latest satellite communications on a top-secret mission to provide intelligence on Argentinian aircraft taking off to attack our troops and the fleet. This intelligence was to prove a critical factor in the success of Operation Corporate. It was to be many years before any details of this secret mission were to emerge.
In between these operational deployments Lane took every opportunity to climb at high altitudes all over the world, in spite of his injuries.
During 1984 and 1985 he was Regimental Sergeant Major of 22 SAS, and introduced an advanced leadership course for NCOs. One SAS soldier recalled that he bore an “aura of quiet confidence, always in control and he provided certainty and reassurance to the younger soldiers”.
After commissioning he was Training Major of 23 SAS (Territorial Army) and Second in Command of the International Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol School in Germany.
Lane was a humble man of exceptional determination and focus. SAS soldiers described him as “an unassuming legend” and “a gentleman”.
Lane was forever grateful to the Army and the opportunities it gave him. Perhaps a little tongue in cheek, he credited the Army with keeping him from membership of another one of Her Majesty’s institutions.
In retirement he became a keen cyclist, raised funds for Brummie Stokes’s climbing charity Taste for Adventure and wrote two books, Military Mountaineering (2000) and a novel, Project Alpha (2004).
Bronco Lane married first, in 1974, Janet Volpe, who predeceased him; and secondly, in 2014, Sue Bufton, with whom he had walked to Everest base camp in 2004. She survives him, with a daughter from his first marriage.
Michael “Bronco” Lane, born July 22 1945, died March 22 2024
