Geoffrey Winthrop Young

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Geoffrey Winthrop Young (1876 – 1958) was an English climber and author of several notable books on mountaineering. He was also a poet of some distinction and an educator that sought alternatives. He began rock climbing shortly before his first term at Trinity College, where he studied Classics and won the Chancellor's Medal for English Verse two years in a row. While there, Young wrote a humorous campus climbing guide, a satirical parody of pompous early alpine guides.[1]

During the Edwardian Period, and up until the breakout of hostilities heralding World War I, Young made many new and difficult ascents in the Alps and on local rocks in the Lake District and Wales. He was elected president of the Climbers' Club in 1913, and he organized the Pen-Y-Pass gatherings that propelled the advancement of rock climbing and included such technical luminaries as J. M. Archer Thompson, George Leigh Mallory, Siegfried Herford and Oscar Eckenstein. These parties, beginning in earnest about 1907, and sometimes reaching sixty men, women and children, flooded the hotel and overflowed into Eckenstein's miner's cabin and various tents. They came to an end in 1914.[2]

During the War, Young was, at first, a correspondent for the liberal Daily News, but later was active as an officer of the FAU, the Friends' Ambulance Unit. He received several decorations, but on August 31st of 1917 an explosion took one of his legs, and his service in the War was over.[3]

He continued to climb for a number of years with an artificial leg, ascending the Matterhorn in 1928. To support bimself and his family he worked for the Rockefeller Foundation and spent much time in Germany, and – having met Kurt Hahn before the War – helped Hahn immigrate to England in 1934. Much of what may be called an outdoor adventure education springs from this connection. The now famous Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme and the International Award scheme comes from this cooperation between Hahn and Young.The Outward Bound movement, after World War II, owes a considerable debt to their friendship.[3]

During World War II, Young was president of the Alpine Club, and it was through his untiring efforts that the British Mountaineering Council, the umbrella organization for climbers in Great Britain, was created in 1945.[3]