TWO Swindon climbers found themselves in the middle of an earthquake on America’s tallest peak, Mount McKinley in Alaska, this week in 1980.

“Swindon adventurer Steve Vincent was stranded on the world’s coldest mountain when the earthquake struck,” we said.

“The cliffs rumbled as millions of tons of ice and rock crashed around Steve, 23, and fellow mountaineer Dave Adams.

“They were camped on a glacier in punishing sub-zero temperatures. All they could do was hope their tiny tent wouldn’t be crushed.

“Said Steve, of Overbrook, Eldene: ‘The tent shook and there was a tremendous noise all around us. Sheets of ice were sliding down the mountain. It was very frightening – but all we could do was sit tight and hope. We were camped in the middle of the glacier and the avalanche didn’t quite reach us.’”

Other climbers on the mountain, later renamed Denali, weren’t so fortunate. According to the Alaskan authorities, six lost their lives.

We added that Steve and Dave, 24, were in the midst of a four-month climbing trip, sponsored by photography and mountaineering gear firms, which took them from the edge of the Arctic Circle to South America.

There is no further mention of Steve Vincent in our files, but we know Dave Adams went on to many further adventures.

He also added his born surname, Hempleman, to the one he had adopted when his mother remarried.

An adventurer of a different kind also appeared in the Adver that week.

Nigel Edgington was a Gorse Hill plumber who won a competition called Great Dreams which was organised by vodka firm Smirnoff.

The top prize was fulfilling an ambition, and Nigel’s was to head for Pentecost Island, 1,000 miles from Australia and take part in a local custom.

It was called the Pentecost Leap and involved participants tying vines to their ankles, attaching the other ends to a platform about 80 feet up a tree and jumping.

The trick was to avoid miscalculating the vines’ length and being killed.

When we caught up with Nigel, he was eagerly anticipating his trip and practicing for his ascent with the aid of what seems to have been a clothesline pole.

Sadly, Nigel would not achieve his dream. The people at Smirnoff, presumably anticipating negative publicity should their competition winner turn himself into something resembling cranberry sauce, vetoed the trip.

Instead they agreed to send him camel racing in Nevada, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

Two front page stories that week were about good news for the local economy.

One began: “Swindon is to get its own £5m Holiday Inn.

“The 169-bed, four-star hotel will be built on a council-owned site at Pipers Way.

“The jet-set hotel will include a conference hall, banqueting suite for 300, a car park for 200 cars and the usual bars and restaurants.

“But its major feature will be a Holydrome – a swimming pool, two squash courts, a gymnasium and a sauna.”

The artists impression looked somewhat different from the structure which was completed a few years later, and which in 1992 became the Swindon Marriott.

On the same page we ran a photograph of two women, Linda Lenthall and Delphine Durant, working on a machine which these days would be guaranteed a space among the exhibits at the Museum of Computing in Theatre Square.

“A booming Swindon firm,” we said, “ is looking for more than 60 more staff.

“Logica VTS makes word processors at its Drakes Way plant.

“The company is planning to turn out £15m worth of equipment in the next year.

“Hundreds of people phoned in for a job after Logica’s advertisement in yesterday’s Adver.”

The machines made by the company were at the cutting edge of technology.

We added: “A processor is capable of doing the job of three secretaries – at a cost of £7,000.”

On the same day, three-bedroom semi-detached houses were being advertised for sale in our property section at between £17,500 and £21,000.

Comedy group the Barron Knights, best known for a parody of The Smurf Song called A Taste of Aggro, made our pages because of their latest single.

Called Never Mind the Presents, it eventually made the top 20, but we were more interested in the B-side, which was called The Swindon Cowboy.

The band’s manager, Tony Avern, revealed that his parents were born in Swindon. He admitted that there wasn’t a major Wild West scene in Swindon but added: “We like Swindon and it fitted in nicely.“

With Christmas approaching, we delivered a run-down of the toys most children were hoping to find beneath the tree come December 25.

Popular choices included the ever popular Lego and new items such as Quickfire, a light-operated shooting game.

The Co-op in Fleet Street took out a full page advert for such delights as Raleigh Grifter and Strika bikes, Tiny Tears Dolls, the Kevin Keegan Electronic Soccer Game and the Fisher Price Chatter Telephone.

Most exotic of all was programmable vehicle Big Trak, which could be had, complete with trailer, for a fairly eye-watering £39.95.