Dick Isherwood Mountaineer: An Anthology

Description

Dick Isherwood learnt his craft in the 1960s in the competitive melee of the Cambridge University Mountaineering Club. His enthusiasm meant he took every opportunity to gain more experience on steep rock – dry, grotty or wet – but by 1964 he was already looking to wider horizons and joined Henry Day’s “Cambridge Chitral Expedition”. By 1969 he had become one of the top rock climbers in the UK, repeating many of the hardest routes and putting up a few new ones in North Wales, the Lakes and Scotland. A job move to the Far East then enabled him to concentrate on his passion for small alpine-type expeditions, much in the style of Shipton and Tilman. One example was his audacious two-man attempt on Annapurna II (7937m). But not all trips were to the Himalaya – he climbed the Carstensz Pyramide (4884m) in New Guinea – one of the “Seven Summits” – by a new route and rounded off the trip with an epic solo ascent of Sunday Peak. He finally “settled down” in 1999 in Port Townsend, Washington and whilst still mountaineering, became an accomplished sailor, frequently taking himself off on long solo trips in his sea kayak or sailing boat around the north Pacific coast. A blogger recently wrote “Everyone had a Dick Isherwood story”. This anthology tells many as described in his writings and those of his friends. They illustrate some of his extraordinary adventures over more than 50 years.