The famed Chris Bonington was another of Whillans’ colleagues. The high point (both literally and metaphorically) of their relationship came when they reached the summit of Annapurna in Nepal in 1970. But while the former went on to become a ‘Sir’ aswell as an acclaimed author and head of various international climbing federations, Whillans’ life took an altogether different route. This isn't about Whillans being better then Brown, mountaineering shouldn't be about world ranking's. It seems though to me that Perrin is ranking the climbers in a rather insidious way. Don was a diamond. I met him once in the Llanberis pub, and college friends of mine lived next to him in Lancashire, Loveclough or Crawshawbooth, somewhere like that, but he had already started his beer training.

Isserman, Maurice; Weaver, Stewart (2008). "New Frontiers, New Faces". Fallen Giants: A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes (1ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300115017. And, of course, Chouinard for going into manufacturing nuts - actually, this was surely the biggest single contribution?Following on from the Troll Whillans, nothing brought quite as much change to the world harness scene as Troll's revolutionary 'Belay Loop'. It made the sit harnesses of the twentieth century, both climbing and industrial, possible. Over twenty years on, virtually all today's harnesses are based on the Troll design of waist and legs connected by a loop of web which was first introduced to the world on the Troll Mark 5 harness in 1978. I were climbing up this steep face and I pulled up to a ledge and there were this huge tarantula staring me in the face, so I smashed it wid me peg 'ammer and it spiralled all the way to the ground a thousand feet below like a dead helicopter". During 1959, Hamish, Don Whillans, John Streetly and Les Brown climbed the Walker Spur on the North Face of the Grandes Jorasses. They thought they had made the first British ascent of the route until they descended to Courmayeur where they found Robin Smith and Gunn Clark celebrating as they had just made the first British ascent of the route. And with him, too, came a character generous, playful and straightforward. His mind may not have been academically trained, but he was sharp, informed, argumentative, and I think very wise. He loved the contest, be it physical or intellectual; he loved to wrestle. When he arrived with the main baggage, Clough was supposed to stop at Hinko Cave overnight on 7 April, but due to confusing instructions, he continued on in a snowstorm with his entourage of 240 porters to temporary base camp some miles further on. Some porters had refused to go beyond Hinko Cave and the rest, overloaded and without adequate clothes and shoes in the bad weather, variously got into states of anger and collapse. However, now the main gear had arrived, it was possible to sort out shelter under cover for the night and provide medical help when necessary. [57] On this same day, Whillans and Haston had reached the Ice Ridge at a col where Camp III was to be established. They had to climb through deep snow in bad weather. In ten days, the expedition had got from the Sanctuary to half height on the face, although with the difficult climbing all to be done further ahead. They abseiled down to Camp II from where, next day, they started placing fixed ropes towards the col. [58]

Perrin grew up in Manchester just after the war, first in Fallowfield and then among the slums of Hulme. Like Whillans, he found freedom in the hills. Long-standing problems feared and revered by the sport’s elders were vanquished beneath the insouciant plimsolls of a ragged and humorous 17-year-old youth. As a young climber myself in Manchester at the start of the 60s, I was intensely aware of his presence and how much he had achieved by then. There were a few times when Don Whillans did not get the last word even though they were rare. Dennis Gray tells how they during the fifties often climbed the cliffs near Glen Etive in the Highland of Scotland. On the way there they passed through the interior of a bay, and every time the discussion arose as to whether the water was salty or fresh. Finally Whillans decided to find out. He stepped out on an old pier and began to climb down to the water. Crash! - The wood was old and rotten and Whillans disappeared in the ice cold water. In full attire including heavy mountain boots, he surfaced after a while. "Me flat 'at - where is it?" he shouted. The wind had blown his beloved possession out of reach. "Is the water salty or fresh?" was the inevitable question from dry land. The stuffed Piranha in a case on the wall was fascinating for us kids too. That and the motorbikes. One of my brothers is as much of a bike nut as Don was. I still remember him asking to be allowed to wash Don's Honda off-roader. In 1970, he reached the summit of Annapurna, in Nepal, after scaling its south face on an expedition led by Chris Bonington, the first in history to struggle up a Himalayan wall of such steepness and difficulty. It was Britain's most important mountaineering achievement since John Hunt's team reached the summit of Everest in 1953.The slower-moving baggage train of 140 porters set off from Pokhara on 22 March, and Clough and his 240 porters were able to leave Bombay with the delayed baggage on 24 March. [30] Chris Bonington first climbed with Whillans in 1958. He grew up in a one-parent family and, though well spoken, was more of an outsider than his contemporaries assumed. Yet the attraction of climbing remains. 'We still have choice,' he says , 'however much our free will is imposed on by the strictures of a materialist and infantilised society. The old anarchies of climbing, to my mind, grow more rather than less attractive with the passage of years.' As well as his achievements on the peaks, Hamish has worked on a massive catalogue of films and documentaries. He was part of the BBC teams that made The Old Man of Hoy and The Matterhorn Centenary Climb and also worked on the film Climb to The Lost World which documented the 1973 climb of Roraima. His safety expertise was also in high demand in the movie industry. On another expedition Greg Child accompanied Don on a trip along a river. Don was looking for the place where a friend had been buried after an accident on Masherbrum in 1957. "We will never find the place after all these years," despaired Greg. '' Aye, a bad year was '57. Herman Buhl was killed, we missed out climbing Masherbrum, my mate died and you were born", Don replied.

Bonington did not think Whillans' criticisms were at all fair. Indeed Burke and Frost has worked hard and made good progress. [82] It's a hard choice right enough, but I think people are ludicrously overestimating the contribution of recent generations. Owen Glynne Jones and perhaps Siegfried Herford both deserve far more consideration than they’re getting. Fowler – a great climber and no error, but how influential was he, in the sense of making a difference to the direction climbing took? I also wonder about John Dunne. What’s happened that wouldn’t have happened if he’d been around? Same with Fawcett, in a way. The best of his day and one of the best ever, of course, but I’m not sure that’s the question. I don’t know that Pete Crew didn’t have more influence than he gets credit for, also. Certainly in the way of introducing professionalism I’d say he was as influential as perhaps any climber before or since. Redhead was also very influential in keeping the flame alight – more so even than Dawes, perhaps. His reputation as a hard drinker went hand in hand with his notoriety for the odd bit of fisticuffs. There are many tales covered in a book called ‘The Villain’ by Jim Perrin. It’s well worth a read if you can get a copy. Ray Jardine (for inventing the Friend and thus making a whole swathe of routes, especially on grit, safe for the masses)Unsworth, Walt (2000). Everest: The Mountaineering History. Seattle, WA, US: Mountaineers Books. ISBN 978-0898866704. I was born in 1961, so the first time I was really aware of Don and his exploits was the Annapurna expedition. I had the poster on my wall at home for years. My mother still has a copy. It's telling that hardly anyone pictured on it is still alive.

In 1958 Hamish returned to the Alps and again met his good friend Chris Bonington. They decided to climb the South West Pillar of the Dru ( Bonatti Pillar), a route considered at the time as one of the hardest in the world. They were joined by two Austrian climbers, Walter Phillip and Richard Blach, and later by Don Whillans and Paul Ross. The climbers ascended the Dru couloir and started up the pillar until a good bivouac was found for rest. The tired men enjoyed tea and watched a huge stonefall shatter the area they had climbed during the morning. Then a single stone fell from above and Hamish was hit. Blood poured from his head and he became weak and dizzy. Walter and Richard led the following day, Don climbed with Hamish and Chris and Paul removed pegs. Hamish struggled but kept going. The six endured another night on the pillar and summited the next day. Hamish, Chris, Don and Paul had completed the first British ascent of the South West Pillar of the Dru. Peter Donnelly, 'Whillans, Donald Desbrow (1933–1985)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006 Grabs a policeman around the throat and needs restraining after being pulled over for speeding while driving home drunk.forgotten name> [despite researching him for my 'entrepeurial management' course at business school] (for starting the project that led to the Foundry, arguably the precursor for all modern climbing walls) Hamish's technical safety expertise was greatly sought after by filmmakers around the world and he was involved in many films from the Eiger Sanction to Monty Python and the Holy Grail. In 2014, Hamish contracted an undiagnosed infection which left him severely confused and delirious for a lengthy period. Eventually the infection was diagnosed and treated and to recover his memory he reread accounts of his previous climbs. This led to a series of fresh tales, and a book recounting untold adventures from Hamish's early life will be published by the Scottish Mountaineering Press later this year.