Dennis Gray | |
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Born | 1935 |
Nationality | United Kingdom |
Known for | General Secretary of the British Mountaineering Council |
Dennis Gray was born 1935 in Yorkshire and started climbing when he was 11, after seeing the great Arthur Dolphin in action at Cow and Calf rocks on Ilkley Moor. He then climbed with a group who called themselves the 'Bradford Lads'. When called up for National Service Gray volunteered to work as a pay clerk and was posted to Manchester, where he was able to climb with the Rock and Ice club members on a regular basis. He has climbed with some of the best British climbers of the day; Tom Patey, Don Whillans, Joe Brown, Harold Drasdo, Robin Campbell, Eli Moriarty, Nat Allen, Slim Sorrell, Ron Moseley and many more.
Gray was on the first ascents of Frisco Bay at Stoney Middleton, Grond on Dinas y Gromlech, Wombat and Macabre at Malham, and North Crag Eliminate on Castle Rock. After several forays into the Alps, in 1961 Gray was invited to join a group of Derby climbers to the Kulu Himalaya, which led to the first ascent of the Manikaran Spires. In 1964 he and Don Whillans took a small expedition to Gauri Sankar, failing to reach the summit by a few hundred feet. Next in 1966 he led an expedition to film the first complete ascent of the north ridge of Alpamayo in the Andes. Five members of the team reached the summit and that the film won first prize in an International Competition.[ citation needed ] He then led the expedition which made the first ascent of Mukar Beh in the Indian Himalaya in 1968, a project which had first captured his imagination in 1961. The climb turned out to be a race against the weather, and the Monsoon broke the day after the summit was reached.
He was best known as the first General Secretary of the British Mountaineering Council, a post he held for 18 years until his retirement in 1989. Two serious falls, first at Glen Nevis and then at Font, Switzerland, meant that Gray's climbing these days is less ambitious than it was. Now a lecturer and trek leader, Gray lives in Leeds, Yorkshire.
Gray has written a multi-volume autobiography described by Jim Perrin as the "perfect counterpoint to the Bonington Saga".
K2, at 8,611 metres (28,251 ft) above sea level, is the second-highest mountain on Earth, after Mount Everest at 8,849 metres (29,032 ft). It lies in the Karakoram range, partially in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan-administered Kashmir and partially in the China-administered Trans-Karakoram Tract in the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang.
Annapurna is a mountain situated in the Annapurna mountain range of Gandaki Province, north-central Nepal. It is the tenth highest mountain in the world at 8,091 metres (26,545 ft) above sea level and is well known for the difficulty and danger involved in its ascent.
Lhotse is the fourth highest mountain in the world at 8,516 metres (27,940 ft), after Mount Everest, K2, and Kangchenjunga. The main summit is on the border between Tibet Autonomous Region of China and the Khumbu region of Nepal.
Dhaulagiri is the seventh highest mountain in the world at 8,167 metres (26,795 ft) above sea level, and the highest mountain within the borders of a single country (Nepal). It was first climbed on 13 May 1960 by a Swiss-Austrian-Nepali expedition. Annapurna I is 34 km (21 mi) east of Dhaulagiri. The Kali Gandaki River flows between the two in the Kaligandaki Gorge, said to be the world's deepest. The town of Pokhara is south of the Annapurnas, an important regional center and the gateway for climbers and trekkers visiting both ranges as well as a tourist destination in its own right.
Nanga Parbat, known locally as Diamer, is the ninth-highest mountain on Earth, its summit at 8,126 m (26,660 ft) above sea level. Lying immediately southeast of the northernmost bend of the Indus River in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Nanga Parbat is the westernmost major peak of the Himalayas, and thus in the traditional view of the Himalayas as bounded by the Indus and Yarlung Tsangpo/Brahmaputra rivers, it is the western anchor of the entire mountain range.
Sir Christian John Storey Bonington, CVO, CBE, DL is a British mountaineer.
Joseph Brown was an English mountaineer who was regarded as an outstanding pioneer of rock climbing during the 1950s and early 1960s. Together with his early climbing partner, Don Whillans, he was one of a new breed of British post-war climbers who came from working class backgrounds in contrast to the upper and middle class professionals who had dominated the sport up to the Second World War. He became the first person to climb the third-highest mountain in the world when he was on the 1955 British Kangchenjunga expedition. Some of his climbs were televised and he assisted with mountaineering scenes in several films; Brown died on 15 April 2020 at the age of 89.
Lionel Terray was a French climber who made many first ascents, including on the 1955 French Makalu expedition in the Himalaya and Cerro Fitz Roy in the Patagonian Andes.
Ian Clough (1937–1970) was a British mountaineer who was killed on the 1970 British Annapurna expedition led by Sir Chris Bonington to climb the south face of the Himalayan massif. He was later described by Bonington as "the most modest man I ever had the good luck to climb with" and "the kindest and most selfless partner I ever had."
Donald Desbrow Whillans was an English rock climber and mountaineer. He climbed with Joe Brown and Chris Bonington on many new routes, and was considered the technical equal of both.
Ngadi Chuli is a high mountain in the Mansiri Himal, also known as the Gurkha Massif, in Nepal. It is flanked by Manaslu to the north and Himalchuli to the south. With an elevation of 7,871 metres (25,823 ft) above sea level, it is the 20th-highest mountain on Earth.
John Angelo Jackson was an English mountaineer, explorer and educationalist.
Robin Smith was a Scottish climber of the 1950s and early 1960s. He died together with Wilfrid Noyce in 1962 on a snow slope in the Pamirs, during an Anglo-Soviet expedition, at the age of 23.
Allen Parker Steck was an American mountaineer and rock climber.
Thomas "Tom" M. Frost was an American rock climber known for big wall climbing first ascents in Yosemite Valley. He was also a photographer and climbing equipment manufacturer. Frost was born in Hollywood, California, and died in Oakdale, California.
Michael "Mick" Burke was an English mountaineer and climbing cameraman.
The 1975 British Mount Everest Southwest Face expedition was the first to successfully climb Mount Everest by ascending one of its faces. In the post-monsoon season Chris Bonington led the expedition that used rock climbing techniques to put fixed ropes up the face from the Western Cwm to just below the South Summit. A key aspect of the success of the climb was the scaling of the cliffs of the Rock Band at about 8,200 metres (27,000 ft) by Nick Estcourt and Tut Braithwaite.
Donald Kenneth Morrison was a British climber and mountaineer. Morrison first became known as a pioneer rock climber in Canada, then in England's Peak District and he led three expeditions to the Himalayas. He died in 1977 leading an attempt on Latok II peak in the Karakoram.
The 1970 British Annapurna South Face expedition was a Himalayan climb that was the first to take a deliberately difficult route up the face of an 8,000-metre mountain. On 27 May 1970 Don Whillans and Dougal Haston reached the summit of Annapurna I which at 26,545 feet (8,091 m) is the highest peak in the Annapurna Massif in Nepal. Chris Bonington led the expedition which approached up a glacier from the Annapurna Sanctuary and then used rock climbing techniques to put fixed ropes up the steep South Face. Although the plan had been to use supplementary oxygen, in the event it was not possible to carry any cylinders high enough for the lead climbers to use on their summit bid.