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'Dougal Haston' (19 April 1940-17 January 1977) was a Scottish mountaineer born in Currie, Edinburgh.

Contents

Climbing achievements

Fatal accident

Quotes

Bibliography

External links

Climbing achievements

In 1970, with Don Whillans, he was the first to climb the south face of Annapurna on an expedition led by Chris Bonington and in 1975, with Doug Scott, he was the first to climb Mount Everest by the south-west face, also on an expedition led by Bonington. His memorial in Edinburgh mistakenly claims he was the first Briton to climb the north face of the Eiger. In fact, this honour went to Bonington and Ian Clough in 1962, but Haston was the first Briton to climb the Nordwand by the ''direttissima'', or most direct route, on the first attempt in 1966 with the American John Harlin.

Fatal accident

Later, he became director of the International School of Mountaineering at Leysin, where he was killed by an avalanche while skiing alone on the North-East face of La Riondaz to the Col Luisset.
Sadly, it seems that he had been choked by his own scarf.
He is buried at Leysin.

Quotes

"In winter, the mountains seem to regain their primitive, virginal pride, and no more do the howling, littering summer masses tramp their more accessible slopes." — Dougal Haston quoted in Jeff Connors' biography (p 104)
"...that most impenetrable of big walls, the mind of Dougal Haston." — from a review of Connors' biography.[1]

Bibliography

★ In High Places, , Dougal, Haston, Cassell, 1972,

★ The Eiger, , Dougal, Haston, Cassell, 1974,

★ Calculated Risk, , Dougal, Haston, Diadem Books, 1979,

★ Douglas Haston: The Philosophy of Risk, , Jeff, Connor, Canongate Books, 2002,

External links

★ Peter Donnelly, ‘Haston, Duncan Curdy McSporran [Dougal] (1940–1977)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 18 May 2007