UKC

Charlie Creese remembers the character that was Athol Whimp, New Zealand's most accomplished mountaineer and the country's first recipient of the Piolet d'Or award, who died in 2012 in an accident in the Darran Mountains. 

'There's no doubting he was larger than life - and that's saying something in a sport that has never lacked for that quality – his general stand-offishness from the scene only accentuating the mystique he'd already acquired from having been an officer in the SAS and an adviser with a desert reconnaissance unit in Oman.'

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Logging in for the first time in a while to say thank you - superb! 

John

By coincidence, I've just this week finished re-reading 'Expeditions' by Andrew Lindblade and Greg Crouch's "Right Mate, Let's Get on With It" article about Athol. Both of which I found, along with Charlie's thoughts, to be excellent.

Cheers Charlie

Enjoyed that so much. We had some great days out together from the Port Hills to Arapiles to Mt Cook in winter. 

Couldn't sleep and just got up at 6:30 because I was so excited about the prospect of taking off to climb on an old WW2 bunker in the woods north of Berlin today; I was sitting with a coffee and the first cigarette in the early backyard sun, and then I read this. It's made my day already; brilliantly written, many thanks! 

Wonderfully written! Thank you...

Awesome, thank you!

Really excellent

I have no words to do this justice. What a brilliant, fitting piece of writing. One of the best things I have read in some time. Thank you.