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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

From the moment I set out to write the story of British climbing, I have been guided along the way by generations of climbers who have written about their own exploits, as well as the many outstanding biographers and historians who have recorded and interpreted the actions of others. All of the authors listed in the Bibliography have contributed something to this book, but I am particularly indebted to Trevor Braham, Ronald Clark, Alan Hankinson, Peter Hansen, Trevor Jones, Arnold Lunn, Jim Perrin, Ted Pyatt, Robert Macfarlane, Kenneth Mason, Geoff Milburn, Jan Morris, Marjorie Nicolson, Simon Schama, Walt Unsworth, Colin Wells and Ken Wilson.

Apart from Colin Wells’ excellent ‘sampler’, A Brief History of British Mountaineering (2001), produced for the Mountain Heritage Trust, it is many years since anybody has attempted to compress nearly 200 years of British rock climbing and mountaineering history into a single book. Inevitably, I have included many of the classic lines, for the benefit of those who may be exploring the history of climbing for the first time, but I hope that even the most seasoned veteran of mountain literature will discover one or two new variants here.

Throughout the book I have made extensive use of quotations to try to capture the spirit of the times in which the events I have described took place. I am very grateful to the following publishers and authors for their kind permission to reproduce extracts from the works detailed in the Notes: Bâton Wicks; the estate of Peter Boardman; Canongate Books; Chris Bonington; Constable & Robinson; Dennis Gray; Peter Hansen; Hodder & Stoughton; The Mountaineers Books; Orion Publishing; Jim Perrin; Random House Group; The Scottish Mountaineering Trust; the estate of Joe Tasker; Neil Wilson Publishing; and Walt Unsworth. Unsuccessful attempts were made to trace the copyright holders of a number of the older titles quoted at length. I have also included shorter quotes from a number of other authors, detailed in the Notes, whom I gratefully acknowledge here. Climbing journals and magazines have been an invaluable source of reference and quotes, particularly the Climbers’ Club Journal, the Fell and Rock Climbing Club Journal, the Himalayan Journal, the Rucksack Club Journal, the Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal, Climber & Rambler, Crags, High, Mountain, On The Edge, Summit and, above all, the Alpine Journal, now in its 147th year, which remains the greatest record of British mountaineering history.

I am very grateful to the Alpine Club, the Abraham Brothers’ Collection, John Beatty, Chris Bonington, John Cleare, Leo Dickinson, the Fell and Rock Climbing Club, Mick Fowler, Jimmy Marshall, Hamish MacInnes, Bernard Newman, Sandra Noel, Ernest Phillips, the Royal Geographical Society, Doug Scott, Gordon Stainforth, the Wayfarers’ Club Archive, Ken Wilson and the Wrangham family for permission to use their photographs.

I would like to thank John Cleare, Steve Dean, Anna Lawford, the late Peter Hodgkiss, Tadeusz Hudowski, Gary Mellor and Gordon Stainforth for their help and advice. I am particularly grateful to Livia Gollancz and Sarah Gracie for reading and commenting on early drafts of the book and to Stephen Goodwin, John Porter and Kev Reynolds for their invaluable corrections, comments and thought-provoking suggestions on a much later draft. The climbing world is full of myths, told and retold until they become an established part of the lore. If some myths have crept into this book masquerading as facts, the responsibility is mine.

Finally, I would like to thank Margaret Body for her brilliant editing and fund of extremely funny stories and Jonathan Williams and the team at Cicerone Press for their constant enthusiasm, support and encouragement.

Our poignant adventure, our self-sought perils on a line of unreason to the summit of a superfluous rock, have no rational or moral justification.

Geoffrey Winthrop Young