Mountaineering
Bob started to climb on gritstone with his friend John Furness while still at school . Soon they were was climbing regularly in Wales, the Lakes and Scotland. Cenotaph Corner remains the greatest rock climb in the world! He first climbed in the Alps when seventeen years of age. He qualified as an International Mountain Guide in 1978.
He was a member of Cambridge University Mountaineering Club and after graduating joined a CUMC expedition to Arctic Norway, opening fantastic granite climbs near Narvik with John Cardy.
An expedition to the Afghan Hindu Kush in 1970 was a wonderful mountaineering education and soon after was followed by the first ascent of the Quille Couloir Direct, a difficult winter climb on Mt Blanc du Tacul, climbed with Bob Shaw.
A very successful alpine season with Peter Boardman resulted in the North Faces of the Doldenhorn, the Nesthorn and the Lauterbrunnen Breithorn and the following year Bob went to the Karakoram with Jon Prosser for exploratory mountaineering around K7 on the Chogolisa Glacier. They attempted to climb a beautiful peak that later became called Drifika.
Whilst instructing at Glenmore Lodge he was able to climb extensively in Scotland with routes such as the Skye Ridge in winter, Crab Crawl on Creag Meagaidh and first ascents in the Cairngorms. Other routes of note were the West Rib of Denali in Alaska with Reg Popham, Jon Prosser and Maurice Conway, a new direct line on the West Face of Batian in Kenya and another new and direct line on the Heim Glacier on Kilimanjaro, both with Dave Morris.
Bob and Allen Fyffe were regular climbing partners in Scotland, climbed in the wonderful Yosemite Valley with an unforgettable bivouac atop Quarter Dome after climbing its North Face and made climbs in Peru including an early ascent of Alpamayo.
They made the first ascent of the S face of Kalanka in the paradise of the Nanda Devi Sanctuary and of the SE Pillar of Bhagirathi III, both in the Garwhal Himalaya. The final push on B3 was a 14 day round trip from base camp with some of the best granite anywhere and some of the most insecure shale... It has become popular climbing objective for many teams.
In 1985 Bob and Allen joined Mal Duff’s expedition to Everest’s unclimbed NE Ridge. This was a tough expedition without high-altitude Sherpa support. Nobody reached the summit but it was an immense privilege to have the N side of the mountain almost to ourselves with just four other (Basque) climbers in the Rongbuk valley.
