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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Jun 13, 2016 - 10:14pm PT
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I had the utmost respect for him because of it.
We must tenaciously protect our current and highly effective methods of identifying top performers and reject these periodic pressures to adapt the sport in an attempt to convert climbers into conventional sporting heroes ... all in the interests of state pride and marketable commercialism.
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Chief
climber
The NW edge of The Hudson Bay
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Jun 14, 2016 - 11:30pm PT
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Sad news and a harsh reminder of the inexorable passage of time.
Long before GoPro videos on You Tube, Ken Wilson's Mountain magazine was a huge influence on our impressionable young minds and I think I have almost every issue stored in the dusty archives.
Chic Scott's cover photo of the late Lloyd Mackay on the North Face of LeCourtes said everything about alpine climbing.
Hugh Burton's article circa 1976 (I can't remember the name or issue) fired our imaginations and ambitions to journey from Squamish to The Valley climb El Cap.
Nick Taylor on Country Road, Ray Jardine on Separate Reality....the list goes on.
Thank you Ken.
RIP
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newport
Sport climber
UK
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Jun 15, 2016 - 02:08am PT
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I knew Ken Wilson when I lived in Macclesfield in the late 90s, but knew of him long before that. As well as Mountain Magazine, he produced the very influential Hard Rock and Extreme RockItalic Text, books which gave young climbers such as myself an awareness of just how rich the climbing possibilities were in the UK, as well as a lifelong tick list.
Ken was one of the leading lights in the Tuesday Night club, a loose collection of climbers who met up in summer evenings at various crags in the Peak District. The next week's venue would be discussed in the pub afterwards, usually steered by Ken towards choosing an obscure, always trad, venue.
Whilst Ken could appear bombastic in print, in person it was hard not to warm to his sense of humour. I remember when he arranged the seating in the pub so that a devout christian was sat next to a communist - they both hit it off fine. Another time, at the local climbing wall, Ken was asked to desist from his stance of ethical purity- rather than clipping the bolts, he was protecting himself but putting slings over the resin holds.
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DanaB
climber
CT
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Jun 15, 2016 - 05:24am PT
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Nothing quite like those first 50 issues.
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mcreel
climber
Barcelona
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Jun 15, 2016 - 05:34am PT
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Wow, thanks for letting us know. Mountain was a great magazine. I read the letters off my copy of "The Games Climbers Play".
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jstan
climber
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Jun 15, 2016 - 12:52pm PT
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In the early 70's when I was working on the piton issue, Ken very kindly offered advice based upon his experience in the UK. There are differences between the two peoples but I found substantial portions of it very useful. He was a great help and a great influence in that day.
I published a trivial newsletter on the problems of that day and found it required ten times the effort I had estimated. Frankly I have difficulty even conceiving of the amount of effort that must have been required to put out Mountain. Mountain was a immense gift to us.
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ecdh
climber
the east
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Jun 15, 2016 - 07:04pm PT
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growing up climbing in the 80s and 90s KW was a distant voice but one that was reference for those who were the setting the standards where i was. all i knew of him was that he seemed to be very serious about what we later came to call 'keeping it real'.
no doubt the stuff that he published advanced this agenda, and thus influenced a certain strain of climbing attitude that went around the world.
its sad that a pillar of this attitude has gone - for i think now is a time when we need it profoundly as the end of the climbing spectrum that is 'just sport' grows fat, whilst the other end that is 'just adventure' withers.
someone like Scott or Brown referred to him as the keeper of the soul of climbing, i suppose as much for his sense of soul as for his sense of duty to keep it. of course that still goes on, but how much it is caught up in sponsorship is hard to determine. the game has changed.
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Jun 15, 2016 - 07:24pm PT
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Ken was a good man. I spent some time with him in England in 1971 and he reciprocated with a visit to Santa Cruz several years later. He also greeted us in London on our way to Afghanistan in 74.
I remember a very rapid, think Grand Prix, tour of London on the way to some pubs where Ken would point out interesting sites and pontificate on British and American history while maneuvering through traffic at breakneck speed and radical maneuvers.
"Guys in the front and sheilas in the back mate!"
He had a fascination with 50s and 60s American cars. Big heavy mothers, lots of chrome, enormous engines and massive hp to push all that weight around. Bigger the better.
I wonder if he and Galen ever got together? They shared many similar characteristics.
My condolences to Gloria and family.
RIP Ken.
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MH2
Boulder climber
Andy Cairns
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Jun 15, 2016 - 07:48pm PT
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The photos and words of Mountain opened eyes and hearts. The books were wonderful, too. Ken Wilson with his appreciation of rock architecture and the risk ethic moulded the minds of many young climbers.
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Jun 15, 2016 - 08:21pm PT
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It great to read posts here from folks who knew Ken Wilson. His Mountain magazine was certainly an influence on me & my climbing ethics.
My condolences to friends & family.
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Chris Jones
Social climber
Glen Ellen, CA
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Jun 17, 2016 - 09:22pm PT
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In the mid-1960s, when we were both young working stiffs (he an architectural photographer, myself an IBM software engineer), I shared a London house with Ken and a couple of other climbers. Weekenders then, we shot off to North Wales, Gritstone, Swanage sea cliffs or other points as often as we could. The drives were epic in their own way, too fast and in sometimes sketchy cars, but the real excitement in the journeys were the endless debates with Ken about every subject one could imagine. Debates that eventually returned to the subject that then consumed us: climbing and climbers. Ken knew everyone in the then-small UK climbing scene - or if he did not, he soon would. He just had an all-consuming desire to know everything about the sport. His enthusiasm was almost manic.
Ken had a belief that great things were happening, or could be made to happen, in the larger climbing world. We had a fascination with the mythic figures of the immediate past, but Ken promoted the view that we and our mates could step up to the plate, could even reach their level. His point was that we constituted “The Hub” of some ill-defined and emerging climbing scene; every Thursday we met at the pub of the moment to plot our weekend plans.
I set sail for California well before Ken’s transformation of the stodgy “Mountaincraft” into the astonishing Mountain. Here Ken could paint the canvas that we had heard him talking about those several years before. How he produced such quality, such excitement, where before the magazines were plodding affairs, one does not know. Except he worked damn hard, was a great photographer, had a trained eye for design, and knew how to create tension and intrigue.
Ken had a fascination for America and all things American. Knowing that I was then living in Santa Monica, he urged me to look up Steve McQueen and invite him to go climbing. I did not pull this off, but I have little doubt that Ken would have done so. On one of his visits to Yosemite we were chatting about the climbing bum’s lifestyle in the US. Ken understood the appeal, but it was obviously not for him; he had things to do, a world to make. He said to me: “That’s all very well, but you cannot live that way for ever. When are you going to get a real job; get a career?” He said this not as criticism, but out of concern for a long-time friend apparently gone astray. I did not have a satisfactory response.
As I reflect upon his immense achievements, in journalism, publishing, advocacy and polemics, I see us again as we then were some 50 years ago: young climbers hiking up to the crags. Ken more than lived up to the dreams we once shared.
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johntp
Trad climber
socal
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Jun 17, 2016 - 09:26pm PT
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Thanks for sharing your memories Chris.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 17, 2016 - 09:45pm PT
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I didn't know Ken personally, but like many other US climbers devoured the information in Mountain.
If I may presume to understand something about UK climbing, I think that part of Ken's genius was to understand with great clarity and advocate with enormous passion that the UK tradition allowed for really big adventures on small rocks.
If he was not totally successful---by his own lights---in preserving this precious quality, I think it fair to say that his influence helped to make UK climbing unique in a climbing world that is for the most part heading in very different directions, and he managed that success, ultimately, without holding back the modern developments (although those were not of real interest to him).
He was surely one of a kind. The climbing world needed more like him, making it all the more appropriate to mourn his passing.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Jun 18, 2016 - 07:41am PT
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Mountain Magazine was one of a kind...no climbing journal will ever match the influence it had. Ken loved to stir up controversy and he had his share of detractors in the UK.
When I was in Britain in 1976 doing Torre Egger slide shows he lined me up with a blind climbing date with Pete Livesy I think, partly, because he knew that our personalities would not mesh.
While his journalistic style riled some people, I think it was very effective in getting to the heart of an issue or, at least, getting a story that had some guts and held your interest.
He never held his punches and he went after Maestri with a vengeance.
Mountain Magazine had a huge influence on my alpine climbing career. The early articles and photos of Patagonia were pretty much totally responsible in getting me to go there in the early 70's.
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Blakey
Trad climber
Sierra Vista
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Jun 18, 2016 - 10:44am PT
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Mountain and through it Ken Wilson was a huge influence on the British and international climbing scene.He was indeed a passionate defender of adventure (Trad) climbing, decrying the use of chalk and of course bolts.
The demise of Mountain removed a platform for his views, but he still managed to get himself heard. His influence definitely waned, and his arguments against bolting (in the UK) were I think proven wrong, The thin end of the wedge' as he put it has never led to the bolting of our precious outcrops, or mountain crags, but was reserved for some sh#t Limestone crags scattered around the UK ;-).
I don't think many people were aware that he was ill. We have lost a real character.
Steve
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Bruce Nyberg
Trad climber
Sheridan, Wyoming
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Jun 23, 2016 - 02:20pm PT
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I cannot remember where and when but there were a couple of climbers giving Ken sh#t about Mountain magazine being to narrow in its scope. Ken replied that over the course of a year, Mountain Magazine covered more of the climbing world than anyone else. The discussion ended there. Well Done Ken
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LongAgo
Trad climber
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Jun 23, 2016 - 02:31pm PT
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I had the pleasure of meeting Ken on one of my climbing tours in the U.K., and going back and forth with him on several articles I wrote for Mountain. He always was keen to get first crack in print of climbing trends in the U.S. I recall showing him some pictures of crack climbing in Yosemite in 1972 and how quickly he grabbed one of me on Crack of Doom for Mountain 21 (1972). I protested: “Wait a minute. That’s not mine. I think John Dill took it.” He came back words to this effect: “Well find him. Get his permission.” Ken had a way of getting what he wanted.
Another of our collaborations was a big feature piece on Tuolumne Meadows with pictures by Tom Gerughty (Mountain 60, 1978). Ken knew Tuolumne was on the rise and wanted to be early in featuring it. He pushed us hard for extensive pictures, route mark outs on the pictures, history of climbing and coverage of the climbing style tussles in play. Tom and I worked harder for him then any climbing editor or publisher to that time because, well, he demanded it.
Looking back to old Mountain Magazines rotting on my shelf, I find:
 Mountain 37 (1974) in which Ken got Paul Nunn to write an affectionate prologue to Nerve Wrack Point, an article I did with Pat Ament where we tried to give a personal touch to a first ascent in Tuolumne. Frankly, I didn’t think the article was as significant or moving as Paul did. But, true to Ken’s vision and passion, he somehow got the commentary for our little piece from no less than the chairman of the British Mountaineering Council and “great yeoman of the climbing world,” as Doug Scott wrote in his obituary for Paul. How? Undoubtedly by way of his dogged determination.
Mountain 53 (1977) where Ken pushed me to be more bold and fiery in my review of climbing style trends in “Scrutinising the Brave New World.” [Calling into the grave to Ken: “Isn’t Scrutinising with a z? Back at me, “Nope.”] By the time I wrote the article, I had taken a more conciliatory tone on the style debate, pushing for agreements and compromises between traditionalists and sportsters to set aside areas and cliffs for each style. Ken would have nothing of it and so it was cut.
Mountain 81 (1981) where my article Away about climbing on Chiquito Dome was attributed to Tom Frost in the Table of Contents. I never said anything about it to Ken but got a note from him sometime later apologizing for the glitch and wishing me well. That turned out to be our last interchange.
As with the death of many other climbing friends, I find myself sad for not having kept in better contact with Ken as the years rolled on. It feels absurd to speak words to him now after he is gone, but here they are: Good knowing you. I treasure all our blustering and banter and cheer. And I wish against all we know that somehow, somewhere you climb on.
Tom Higgins
LongAgo
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Kligfield
Mountain climber
Boulder, CO
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Jun 27, 2016 - 03:10pm PT
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Ken Wilson meant more to the international climbing community in the late 1960s and 1970s than can be easily appreciated by the current generation of climbers. During the 1960s, the networks between climbers in different countries was sparse, to say the least. As Editor of Mountain magazine, Ken started to break down these barriers through his emphasis on international activities. At a time when it was popular to focus almost entirely on the exploits of UK climbers, Ken broke away from this tradition and initiated coverage of foreign climbers--not only those from the USA but also from Russia, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere. The creativity to accomplish this break in tradition should not be underestimated for the period in which it was accomplished--and its effects were to be long-lasting in the communication between climbers in the written press (not only Mountain Magazine but other publications).
Ken went much further in increasing collaboration and interest amongst climbers internationally. He personally focused his attention on fostering positive activities amongst climbers before "meets" and "international forums" for these activities ever existed. Typical of Ken's influence was my personal experience. Fresh off the flight at Heathrow airport to visit the UK as a tourist, the initial visit to the climbing shop in London resulted in a quick phone call to Ken at his home office on a Thursday evening. The conversation illustrated Ken's illustrative erudition of the community? "Who's this? Oh, Roy Kligfield. You did the second ascent of this, and the first ascent of that...etc." His knowledge of events in the American climbing community was prolific. "Find out how to get to Archway Tube Station by 3:00 PM tomorrow and we'll introduce you to UK climbing..." So began an association with Ken that spanned the Atlantic. He picked me up at the appointed hour, introduced me to the who's who of UK climbing, whisked me up to Wales, the seacliffs of Anglesey, the pub scene in Tremadoc, and we did some fine climbing at the same time. Always curious about the trends in N. American climbing, he was one of the first to push the use of UK methods, especially the use of nuts in lieu of pitons. A generation of N. Americans (including prominent climbers such as Royal Robbins) felt the effects of Ken's influence in this regard.
At a time when climbing was very insular, when international cooperation had not yet blossomed, when climbers had great difficulty in learning about each others' values and accomplishments--Ken broke down all of those barriers.
As such Ken deserves an honorary place in the climber and mountaineer's hall of fame. I hope the postings in this forum go a small way to that realization. We all mourn his passing but revel in the knowledge of his accomplishments, and how they helped pave the way to the climbing society that exists today.
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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It is hard to overstate the impact that Mountain had on our generation in the 1960s and 1970s. Under Ken’s leadership, it was acerbic, witty, authoritative, and the most highly respected source of climbing information. You could tell that Ken enjoyed chronicling competition among climbers and he intentionally stoked regional rivalries with sensational headlines reporting “raiders” from one area of Britain “snatching” first ascents from the locals.
I met Ken in 1977 on a trip to the Alps with Rob Muir and Gib Lewis. Soon after our Laker airline flight landed, Ken gave Gib and I a driving tour of London landmarks on the way to an atmospheric and wonderful downtown pub. Memories of that trip:
• John Allen had just freed “Great Wall” on Cloggy in Wales. This was a famous climb attempted by Joe Brown, but the first ascent was done by Peter Crew. As mentioned above, Allen’s climb led to the notorious headline in Mountain: “Allen frees Great Wall, but uses Chalk”. In the pub that first night, Ken talked up the Great Wall as one of the best modern climbs in Britain and declared that we had to try it. We were game and put it on the list, as we were planning a stay at Al Harris’ in Wales. Then he surprised us by suggesting that if we did it without chalk, our ascent would be headlined in the magazine as the true, first free ascent.
Ken was the most influential “prophet of purism” —a phrase he used to describe Steve Wunsch. He was the great advocate of British tradition which frowned on overuse of pitons,bolts, and other “unfair means.” Part of his agenda was a campaign against chalk, and he was more than willing to offer us a quid pro quo if it furthered his agenda.
Rob Muir and I did the route free that summer, but we used chalk. Of course, there was no mention in the magazine.
• Ken was not shy about passing judgment on behavior he felt lacked propriety from his place in the climbing firmament. I remember he described to us an American climber who had not returned hospitality shown by British climbers when the Brits made a reciprocal visit to the US.
Ken shook his head and said, “It’s just not good blokery, is it? “ And he meant it to sting.
• At the pub, we were chatting about various Americans and Ken mentioned Nick Clinch. At 22, I knew US rock climbing lore pretty well, but I was not well-versed in the history of greater ranges. So when I said “Who’s he?” Ken was astounded at my ignorance and began a lecture on that history and Nick’s important place in it.
• My only regret from that trip is that we didn’t take Ken up on his offer to introduce us to Reinhold Messner so that we might have gone climbing with him in the Dolomites. We had prepaid flights back on a date certain, and just ran out of time.
Despite chalking up the Great Wall, on that trip we came to appreciate the way the various ethical strictures that Ken championed worked to preserve the adventure and fun of exploration, even on Britain’s sometimes Lilliputian crags. For example the strict prohibition on top roping on Gritstone, meant that there were still thousands of new climbs to be led, where if top roping had been condoned, the entire place would have been mostly climbed out decades earlier.
Ken is a promethean figure in the culture of climbing during the 20th century, but I’ll remember him best as a funny and delightful pub companion.
Ken was a good bloke and will be missed by friends on both sides of the pond, and world-wide.
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