News has reached us that John Ashburner passed away on 5th May at Aintree Hospital, Liverpool, after a courageous 5-year battle with cancer of the larynx.
Members would be welcome to send their tributes to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. so that they can be posted on the website.
It is with great sadness that we report the death on 6th March of Peter Mallalieu, Honorary Keeper Emeritus of the Club’s Paintings.
Peter joined the Club in 1992 and in 1996 became Honorary Keeper of the Club’s Paintings. In 2007 he published ‘The Artists of the Alpine Club’, the first ever biographical study of Alpine Club artists
Peter Mallalieu's funeral was held at Banbury Crematorium on Friday 17 March at 2.00 pm.
Members would be welcome to send their tributes to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. so that they can be posted on the website
We are saddened to learn of the death of Alan Lyall who died on Monday, 9th January, He had been a member for 25 years, joining as a full member in 1991. Alan is known for his book The First Descent of the Matterhorn: A Bibliographical Guide to the 1865 Accident and its Aftermath.
It is with sadness that we report of the death of Harry Sales
Harry’s funeral is on Wednesday 25th January 2017. In the morning there will be a private cremation and after that, everyone is welcome to attend a Service in Celebration of Harry’s Life, at 2.30 in Paul Church, near Penzance. This will be followed by Afternoon Tea in the Church Hall. Afternoon tea with friends was one of Harry’s favourite things!
John Atherton has been asked to handle any enquiries from Club friends, his phone number is 01736 731537 and email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Photos by John Atherton
The one that shows Harry climbing was taken in April 2000, when I took Harry aged 82, on his last climb - Allison's Rib at Bosigran.
Des was a well-known and very popular figure in the Scottish mountaineering world, as attested by the huge numbers that attended his funeral. He started climbing at Edinburgh University in 1970 and soon became President of the university mountaineering club, establishing friendships, including with his wife Jane, that were to endure throughout his life. Des was a bold and proficient ice climber, with a variety of new routes to his name, especially in the more remote corners of the Highlands. He was not only a great lover of the Scottish hills (he had just four Munros left to do), for walking, climbing and ski touring, but also a keen stravaiger of the wild coasts and islands, with a few sea canoeing trips to his credit. Abroad Des took part in over a dozen climbing expeditions, mainly to the Himalaya (starting with an early trip to Afghanistan in 1972) but also to the Caucasus, Andes and Canadian Rockies. He succeeded on many peaks over 6000m, but was rebuffed at about 7500m on Gasherbrum III and Nanga Parbat. In the Alps Des achieved many great classics of the 1930s (eg Walker Spur, Gervasutti Pillar, N Face of Dru) and more recently, in his sixties, had been ticking off the 4000m peaks, usually by routes more challenging than the voies normales.
Des was an extremely warm-hearted and affable person – it would be hard to find anyone he had crossed swords with. In his professional life he was a teacher of outdoor activities at Craigroyston High School in north Edinburgh. The outpouring of tributes from former pupils, colleagues and members of the Muirhouse community showed how deeply his commitment to taking disadvantaged kids to the outdoors had affected their lives.
Although Des had only recently joined the AC he was well known to many through his long mountaineering career. One of his more recent achievements was to revive the SMC ‘s Edinburgh lecture series, by bringing in Alpine Club and JMCS members. He devoted much thought and energy to this lecture programme and was a delightful and amusing presenter of the speakers, thus ensuring a growing attendance, drawing people from a considerable distance.
Though I will miss him terribly, I count myself incredibly fortunate to have had him as a close friend and climbing partner for over forty years. We formed a harmonious team with similar outlook on the mountains and both enjoyed our inexhaustible banter.
Des will be sorely missed by his many many friends, and my heart goes out to his family.