Don Whillans

Born and brought up in a two-up two-down house in Salford, Lancashire, Whillans began hiking on the Pennine moors while still at Broughton modern school;[1] climbing was the next step for an adventurous young boy.

The expedition was unsuccessful: Bob Downes died on the mountain[2] and the highest point reached by the team was about 200 m (660 ft) below the summit.

Whillans was attributed with safety and mountain awareness, as evidenced by his retreat from the Eiger North Face on several occasions because of bad weather or rockfall.

One example which encapsulates his wry humour concerns him encountering a team of—to his mind—poorly equipped Japanese mountaineers attempting the north face of the Eiger.

Whillans liked to emphasise his working class credentials, and on lecture tours, enjoyed telling the story of being stormbound in a tent high in the Himalayas with Dougal Haston who had finished reading The Lord of the Rings and passed him the book.

Whillans was a heavy drinker, which harmed his career after the expedition to Annapurna and may have contributed to his early death.

He died at the age of 52 of a heart attack and was the subject of a biography titled The Villain by the author–climber Jim Perrin in 2005.