Ian Clough - Climbing Career

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 first ascent of the Central Pillar of Frêney on Mont Blanc with Don Whillans, Chris Bonington and Jan Długosz in 1961 and the first British ascent of the North Face of the Eiger, 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, both Clough and Patey died in separate climbing accidents within five days of one another. When Clough died on May 30th, 1970, he would have been unaware Patey had been killed abseiling down another Scottish sea stack on May 25th. Clough's wife Niki Clough, who later died of cancer, was also a mountaineer and climbed the north face of the Matterhorn with her husband.