Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
I met Alex, Sarah and John Powell at the Padarn Lake pub in Llanberis one
Saturday lunchtime. We drank until afternoon closing, swapping tales, and then
went for a wet walk in the hills until dark. That was when Alex invited me to go to
Annapurna the following autumn. I told him
I was really interested but that I already had a trip half planned with the Bur-
gesses pre-monsoon. When that fell through in early December, I phoned Alex the
same day.
'Hi kid, is the Annapurna offer still on the table?'
'Of course - great. I've been talking to Rouse and he's up for it. René is already
getting sponsors in France so that means two ropes of two which will be best on
this face.'
We met at an Alpine Climbing Group (ACG) dinner a couple of weeks later but
there was little time to discuss our plans. There were two main features of the ACG
'dinners'; they brought together a complete cross-section of the hardest climbers in
the country, almost all men, and they inevitably became very rowdy, and some-
times fractious.
[4]
That year's 'do' was in a medieval-style banquet hall somewhere in Derbyshire.
As the evening reached midpoint, one bright spark spotted the lances and shields
mounted on the walls. When pointed out to the assembled drunken horde, every-
one shouted: 'Joust!' Jousting was a common sport; you got on the back of a mate,
and charged across the floor at another pair, trying to knock off the man on the
shoulders. This, however, was the first time it would be tried with real lances. Alex
jumped onto Rouse's shoulders, and the pair charged the opposing knights, one of
whom happened to be Barry Kershaw.
Kershaw was known as the most feared brawler in the ACG. His heroic reputa-
tion was sealed at an earlier dinner in an incident after the barman called time.
Kershaw had discovered there was a Hell's Angels gathering in the next room with
cases of beer still piled high. Now was the time for action. He burst through the ad-
joining doors and said:
'Right, any ten of you outside now, and then the next ten to follow until you hand
over your beer.' The Hell's Angels backed down. One can imagine that they took
account of the hundred or so other ACG members stood awaiting the outcome. The
ACG continued the evening with the newly acquired beer.
However, on the evening in question, Alex either did not know Kershaw's reputa-
tion, or was too drunk to care. When he was knocked off, he got up and threatened
Kershaw, who simply stood there laughing at him. From out of nowhere, Don
Whillans appeared, pushed Alex to the floor and dragged him by his hair into a
corner. Everyone witnessing this assumed it was a humiliating put-down for Alex.
