In the years after leaving the Royal Marines, I went on to climb many difficult classic climbs including numerous first ascents. Some of these first ascents are still not often climbed even with modern climbing equipment. For instance, it is not known if Black Panther at Cheesewring Quarry, Cornwall has had a second ascent.
My alpine climbing started in Chamonix (French Alps) in 1958, and by 1993 I had climbed many of the classic, alpine routes. Although two attempts on the North Face of the Eiger were thwarted by bad weather, I have made 132 ascents of Mont Blanc. I visited Mount Kenya, East Africa, as early as 1960 and have since made seven ascents of that mountain and thirty two ascents of Mount Kilimanjaro. Went to Mt McKinley and accomplished an amazing crevasse rescue, and climbed on Aconcagua twice.
Having climbed all over the world, I am appalled by the use of expansion bolts and agree with Reinhold Messner that climbers who carry bolts are 'carrying their courage in their rucksack'. I also believe that potential new climbs should be left for a better, future (ground-up) climber rather than practising for an ascent of these potential climbs with the use of a top-rope.
In 1985 Dennis Gray, the then general secretary of the British Mountaineering Council (BMC), offered to give full publicity to any problems (as a professional climber/guide) that I might have in the future. There have been no problems. My safety record as a guide/instructor has been, and I hope will continue to be, exemplary.
