Discover

'Ian Clough' (1937-1970) was a British mountaineer who was killed on an expedition to climb the south face of the Himalayan massif Annapurna.

Contents

Climbing career

Expedition to Annapurna

1999 Memorial

Bibliography

External links

Climbing career

Clough was born in the Yorkshire town of Baildon, near Bradford, and grew up to become one of the best British climbers of his generation. He made many difficult ascents in the Alps, including the Central Pillar of Frêney on Mont Blanc with Chris Bonington in 1961 and the North Face of the Eiger, again with Bonington, in 1962. He climbed widely in Britain too, publishing a guide to the Scottish Highlands in 1969, and in 1968 he and fellow mountaineer Tom Patey were the first to climb Am Buachaille, a sea stack at Sandwood Bay off the Scottish coast of Sutherland. Two years later, however, a strange quirk of fate would end with both Clough & Patey killed in separate climbing accidents within five days of one another - 6,000 miles apart. When Clough died on May 30th, he would have been unaware Patey had been killed abseiling down another Scottish sea stack on May 25th 1970.
Clough's wife Niki, who was to sadly later die of cancer, was also a mountaineer.

Expedition to Annapurna

In 1970, he took part in the expedition to Annapurna led by Chris Bonington, but after the successful ascent of the south face by Dougal Haston and Don Whillans he was killed by a falling sérac (ice-pillar) on Annapurna's lower slopes. Bonington dedicated the book he wrote about the expedition to Clough and a meeting-place and arts venue in Clough's hometown of Baildon was named "Ian Clough Hall" in his honour.

1999 Memorial

In November 1999 a brass plaque was erected in Clough's memory at Annapurna base camp. The text of the plaque reads:


IN MEMORY OF

'IAN CLOUGH'

MEMBER OF THE 1970 CHRIS BONINGTON EXPEDITION

ANNAPURNA SOUTH FACE

KILLED ON DESCENT IN THE ICE FALL

NOVEMBER 1999


The plaque was commissioned by Kelvin Kent, who had been base camp manager on the expedition. An earlier memorial at the site is an inscription reading "Ian Clough, killed May 30, 1970", cut into rock shortly after Clough's death with an accompanying message in a local language.

Bibliography

★ ''Ben Nevis and Glencoe'', Ian Clough 1969

★ ''Winter Climbs: Ben Nevis and Glencoe'', Ian Clough (ed. Alan Kimber) 1981

★ ''Annapurna South Face'', Chris Bonington 1971 (book dedicated to Clough's memory)

External links

★ Story about the memorial to Ian Clough in the Bradford ''Telegraph and Argus''

★ Photograph of the memorial