UKC

Perhaps I'm a bit necrophiliac, but I like to think it's just that I have a strong sense of climbing history ...

A couple of weeks ago I visited the cemetery in Courmayeur, just through the underpass downhill from the bus station. It has a short row of sad climber gravestones, the biggest commemorating H O Jones and his young bride who died with their guide on Mt Rouge de Peuteret in 1912.

At the end of the row is the modest marker stone for Arthur Dolphin, killed below the Geant in 1953. Regrettably (in my view anyway) it's almost invisible under ivy. I hacked it back with a penknife but it almost needs secateurs. I'm not in Courmayeur very often, so perhaps someone else with 20 minutes to spare there could help to tidy up the neglected grave of one of the heroes of English rock climbing.

In reply to Bob Aitken:

You might want to double check your definitions there boyo unless you found Mr Dolphin an especially attractive man...

In reply to Bob Aitken:




To my embarrassent Bob, I never knew Dolphin was buried there - although I'm not exactly a fan of graveyards, so I've never visited it.

However, we live in Courmayeur about six months of the year (predominantly over the winter months) so I'll try and make a point of paying my respects, accompanied by some tools, later this year.

In reply to Goucho:



hopefully without the necrophiliac bit......

In reply to Goucho:

That would be great Goucho. As you probably know, Italians take meticulous care of their family graves so the British corner in Courmayeur is a bit of an embarrassment.

Apologies for starting the necrophilia hare - I'd casually assumed the term encompassed a wider and less salacious connotation of broad interest in the dead, tombstones etc, but I should have known the UKC community would zoom in!

In reply to Bob Aitken:

Apologies for starting the necrophilia hare - I'd casually assumed the term encompassed a wider and less salacious connotation of broad interest in the dead, tombstones etc, but I should have known the UKC community would zoom in!

That's typical of UKC posters, dead boring to the last...

In reply to FactorXXX:

Better than boring the dead surely?

In reply to Bob Aitken:

The word "necrothespian" might be useful, although it's not really a word.

The other day I went to search out the grave of Alan Brooke, whom I much admire (his diary, &c), and after a bit of a hunt found it in very reasonable condition, as one might expect.


I guess graves abroad present something of a logistical problem. But are the British somewhat backward in this regard? Parts of Highgate cemetery are certainly rather Gothic in their return to ivy-clad nature.

In reply to Bob Aitken:


That disappointing. I thought you'd done it on porpoise.

In reply to Bob Aitken:

They may be an esoteric term that's impossible to find, but 'necropolisophile' is perhaps more along the right lines - but each to their own, as long as it's not their own family.....

In reply to Bob Aitken:
I hope taphophilia is the term you're looking for.

And no, not a love of the Welsh (which is understandable).

In reply to Ste Brom:



So how on earth do you look up a word like that when the only ideas you have are dead ends?
(I'll get my coat)