Don Whillans

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Don Whillans (18 May 1933 - 4 August 1985) was an English rock-climber and mountaineer. Born and raised in a two-up two-down house in Salford, Lancashire, he climbed with both Joe Brown and Chris Bonington on many new routes, and was considered the technical equal of both. He was an apprentice plumber when he first starting his climbing career with Joe Brown in 1951. Don met Joe Brown while climbing one day. When Joe's climbing partner failed to follow Joe up a new route, Don shouted up to ask if he could try - and subsequently led the second pitch of Joe's new route. Don had from an early age walked all around the local moors and downs, climbing therefore was the next step for an adventurous young boy. With Dougal Haston, he made the first ascent of the South Face of Annapurna in Bonington's 1970 expedition.

Whillans was well-regarded for his capacity to deliver a cracking one-liner off the cuff. One example which perhaps best encapsulates his wry humour concerns him encountering a team of -- to his mind -- poorly equipped Japanese mountaineers attempting the North Wall of the Eiger. "You going up?" Whillans asked them. "Yes! Yes!" came the reply. Pause, then Whillans: "You may be going a lot higher than you think."

Whillans was well-known for his heavy drinking, which harmed his career after the expedition to Annapurna and may have contributed to his early death from a heart attack. He also designed mountaineering equipment, including the "Whillans Harness", once described as designed to safely transport beer-guts to great height, and the "Whillans-box" expedition tent. He died at the age of fifty-two and was the subject of a biography called The Villain by the author-climber Jim Perrin in 2005.

The British Mountaineering Council maintain a climbing hut near the Roaches in his memory.

[edit] References

Jim Perrin (2005), The Villain : the life of Don Whillans, Hutchinson, ISBN 0-09-179438-2.
Whillans, Don & Ormerod, Alick (1971), "Don Whillans. Portrait of a mountaineer.", Heinemann, London (ISBN 0-434-86251-7) (Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1973).
Don Whillans - Myth and Legend (2006) - Film by Leo Dickinson