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Barrow Mountaineering and Ski Club Newsletter

January 2007

 

October 2006.

 

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Annual Dinner .

Just over 30 members and their partners attended the 2006 dinner on Saturday 2nd December, which was held at the Crown Hotel in Coniston. Before the dinner some of Dave Winstanley’s books were displayed in order that people could take them if they wished. Dave bequeathed his mountaineering books and equipment to the BM&SC membership. After the dinner Ian Matheson showed the 16mm film ‘Fitzroy’, which relates the story of the first ascent of the South West Buttress in 1968. The film was made by Lito Tejada-Flores of an amateur expedition comprising himself, Yvon Chouinard, Chris Jones, Dick Dorworth and Doug Tompkins, and is a unique record of its time. 

David Winstanley, 1935 – 2006

With the sudden passing of David on 6^th September 2006, the Barrow Mountaineering and Ski Club has lost another of its notable characters.  He was a man of many facets; a very caring and attentive person towards anyone in distress, whether by accident or illness, he would be there to help, including the aged and infirm.  In contrast, to put it in his own words “Any fiendish mechanical contrivance” that let him down would be at the receiving end when he gave vent to his anger, usually with a large hammer. 

 

Not a ladies’ man Dave never married nor, as far as I know did he ever have a girlfriend, although in his diary he confesses to “ogling pretty ladies”.  He was however an enthusiastic and prolific climber.  I climbed with him a lot in the 1950’s and 60’s.  In those days we climbed routes on our Lakeland Crags up to severe standard with the occasional VS and spent several Easter holidays when we had “proper winters”, on the North Face of Ben Nevis doing the classic ridges and buttresses, and all this was our training for bigger routes in the Alps.  At this time David was a member of the Army Mountaineering Association having been drafted into the Royal Engineers and then the Intelligence Corps in Germany.