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Main Boards => News and Articles => Topic started by: midweekmountain on 08:51:28, 14/06/16

Title: End of an era
Post by: midweekmountain on 08:51:28, 14/06/16

Just heard the sad news that Ken Wilson died yesterday following a dementia related illness. Ken was 75 and has been in a nursing home in Sydenham, London for over a year.

Ken's superb series of Classic, Hard and Extreme Rock plus Big Walks, Classic Walks, Wild Walks books were hugely inspiring and influential to me not to mention his Mountain Magazine compulsive reading for a young wannabe climber.

I feel honoured to have meet Ken many times out and about in the hills and always enjoyed the banter.

A man who shook the rafters of outdoor journalism and inspired a generation, this is truly the end of an era.




RIP

Title: Re: End of an era
Post by: vizzavona on 09:38:55, 14/06/16

Both the earlier rock books are on my shelf and also not forgetting 'Games Climbers Play' that probably inspired JP to produce 'Mirrors in the Cliffs'....all very fine examples of bringing to the wider world the writings of the folks who go into the mountains.  Does any other 'game' have such an interesting literature?

Title: Re: End of an era
Post by: Innominate Man on 10:17:52, 14/06/16

Sad news indeed - on many levels. He will be missed.  

Title: Re: End of an era
Post by: barewirewalker on 11:47:03, 14/06/16

A really sad loss, for those who may not know why read here;
http://footlesscrow.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/ken-wilsonthe-man-who-gave-us-mountain.html


Their was a very strong divide between walker and climber, when I first started to discover the lure of the mountains, that divide could have and would have deepened, with new generations taking over from the pre-war climbers but it has taken a rare gift to show the bond between the two disciplines. The needle on Pontesbury Rocks, I know it well, it is where I learnt my basic rope routines. But walking from Longden Common towards the location of the needle I had an epiphany, the understanding of the linear walk blazed across my mind.


Curiously having been out of the climbing world for several decades, then pitched into the world of access by Local Access Forum, the better logic and reasoning that comes from the BMC, which dwarfs the intellect of both the CLA and Ramblers, had surprised me. Reading this I understand how this has come about so it is not just a sad loss but a tragedy.