UKC

We posted earlier today announcing that Andy Pollitt had passed away, following information received through email and posted online. We have since been informed that Andy is still on life support, which is due to be turned off tomorrow (Melbourne time). We apologise for incorrectly reporting the news and our thoughts are with Andy's friends and family.

Oh my goodness. This is terrible news. An absolute legend of the sport. An icon who epitomised the 80s climbing revolution.

F**k

Oh No!! Awful news. Great climber and great on here too. RIP.

Oh no, what terrible news.

jcm

Couldn't have said it better.

Oh no. That's terrible news.

what Graeme said.

Indeed

What an awful tragedy.

🙁

Not your fault, but if anything this is somehow even more horrible than the news I responded to this morning. 

such sad news, I was only talking to him a couple of months ago. 100% good guy and a good but distant, by mileage, friend. Always enjoyed competing for new routes with him in North Wales, always in a friendly way. And all that enjoyment around Pen Trwyn. RIP my friend.

I’m working late tonight, and am off to the climbing wall before going back to finish off. I haven’t been able to drive off because for some unaccountable reason I can’t see for tears.

all the climbing stuff aside, Andy was a lovely sensitive, kind and funny guy. I’m really sorry Andy.

I'm so sorry.  I enjoyed chatting to him on here. 

So very sorry to hear this.

RIP Andy.

That's a shock. I was just enjoying reading one of his articles the other day, his second ascent of the Bells, the Bells on Gogarth! Really sad news as he was no age at all. Was it Andy with that classic picture with the seaweed hair? He will be greatly missed. One of N Wales legends!

In a sense he was the Al Harris of his generation. Characters like that really liven up the climbing scene and always appear to be getting less numerous, which may have some truth to it as climbing becomes more mainstream but may well be just a warped perception resulting from selective memory. We tend to filter out the grey and remember only the bright stars, of which Andy was certainly one of the brightest.

RIP Andy.

Andy was in my teenage years my number one rock  star climbing hero. He just looked like a rock star and nothing like the climbers i climbed with at the time in Scotland. I met him only once at the first national or international BMC youth meet. He sat with a girl friend at a table in the Scotsman with everyone of our group too much in awe to approach. I got a bit pissed and got the courage to approach him. What followed was a most accommodating evening spent with him. He gave the most valuable advice on advancing my climbing I have ever had and his personal stories were bonkers. I lost my mother last week after 13 years of dealing with dementia but Andy was too young to go!

The candle that burned twice as bright.

The world seems darker.

Fuxks sake.

Gutting.

Seemed like a proper brilliant bloke on here and someone I genuine looked up to at the start of my climbing journey. Someone who didn't take life too seriously.

Andy, you will be missed.

I only knew Andy from his contributions to UKC and from reading of his rich past, and so I can't explain why this news has hit so viscerally. Andy was evidently a unique and brilliant individual who contributed greatly to the colour of the climbing world, and to the colour and depth of UKC.

My sincerest condolences to family, friends and all those here who knew Andy personally.

I last saw Andy in 2003 completely by accident in the grampians at the legendary troopers arms. I knew Andy from Sheffield and Wales in the 80's. He had given up climbing but we had a good chin wag about the brit scene, rope access, oz and all things in between. The evening progressed and a rather large party of ex pats/brits/climbers/hangers on and other miscreants ended up drinking/dancing and misbehaving till the sun came up. 

Rip Andy