In reply to UKC News:
Still a bit stunned, the man was always so healthy and fit when I knew him. Think I last spoke with Ian some time in the 90s - reckon it was an Easter in Buoux and of course he was quietly crushing stuff.
We met at uni in Bath - so 79/80. He was a keen member of the caving club and if I remember correctly he'd not rock-climbed before. He and another caver Sean hooked-up with the climbing club and gave it a go. We were no great shakes and Ian didn't take long catching up with us. Memory is hazy but he was rather quickly pushing into the E numbers at that esoteric Avon Gorge - good times for all of us. Checked out my old Avon guidebook and his name is there many times. Didn't know he'd done so much hard stuff in the Lakes before reading the UKC obit - Avon wouldn't have been a bad place to start gaining gnarly trad skills.
Couple of years after graduation we rather randomly decided to cross the pond...
With hindsight, that American trip was bit of a mess - we had rather vague plans, no money to speak of and were out of our depth most of the time. But it felt like a real adventure and we pulled-off some half decent stuff. Best day by far being West Face of the captain - very much at our technical limit and by far longest route either of us had done at the time. That could have gone wrong. We cheated a bit (on advice of others) by climbing the first two hard pitches a couple of days before and leaving our ropes in place. Then slept under it, jugged those 2 pitches then set off with a bottle of water and some granola bars. Monster day out, jogging the long way back to the valley floor through gathering darkness with only real incident being Sparky* going flat on his face a few hundred yards from the camp site. I remember him fretting about every noise in the woods - as if the grizzlies weren't going to go for slower and chunkier me. We then failed totally on Astroman - the long long enduro jam corner thing was beyond us, trying it in direct sunlight probably didn't help. Nice to read that (of course) Ian went back and did the thing.
*Sparky was coined later in the trip when we bailed from the Naked Edge amid lightening and mayhem of an afternoon storm. He was freaked by seeing sparks jump from him to me and declined another attempt.
Great times. Sad you went so soon Ian.