Scott was regarded as one of the world's leading high-altitude and big-wall climbers and was the recipient of numerous awards for his achievements. He was the first English person to reach the summit of Mount Everest and, on the descent, he survived an unplanned bivouac with Dougal Haston 100 metres below the summit, without oxygen, sleeping bags and, as it turned out, without frostbite. Apart from his first ascent of the southwest face of Everest with Haston in 1975, all his other Himalayan climbs were achieved in lightweight or pure Alpine style. He pioneered big wall climbing on Baffin Island, Mount Kenya and in the Karakoram, famously on The Ogre with Chris Bonington, and later on Shivling in the Indian Himalayas.