Willans, Don

Don Willans was born in Salford ( ) on May 18, 1933 in the family of assistant grocer Tom Willans and his wife Mary Barrows ^[1] . In his youth, he was engaged in gymnastics , played rugby . After graduation, he became an apprentice plumber ^{[2] [3]} .

His hobby for climbing began as early as school age with Sunday walks along the Peak District . His first climbing route, from his own words, he went at 16 years old (in April 1950) - The Atherton Brothers at Shining Clough ^[4] . In his youth, on the rocks of the park, he met same as he came from a simple working-class family, whose further friendship led to the emergence in 1951 of the Manchester Alpclub and the “most outstanding in history British mountaineering " ligaments. His ascents, starting from the first, had their own style and corresponded to the character of the Don - they were “ impudent, uncompromising and on the verge” . Starting with gravel routes , Willans later switched to rock walls in North Wales , the Lake District and Scotland , making the first ascent of a number of very difficult rock routes, such as Sloth ^[5] and others, and which at that time were a breakthrough in British post-war technical mountaineering ^{[ 3] [6]} .

Together in Brown, Don Willans made the first British ^[7] (third) ascent on the western wall of the Petit Drew peak, and in 1954 the first ascent on the western wall on the Aiguille de Bletieres. This was followed by many outstanding ascents in the Dolomites and Mont Blanc massif, such as in 1958 the first British ascent of the Bonatti ridge to Petit Drew (along with Chris Bonington , Paul Ross and Hamish McInness) ^[8] and Chima-Sous-Alto ( Italian: Cima Su Alto ), culminating in the first passage in 1961 of the Central Pillar of Freney along with Chris Bonington, and Polish climber on Mont Blanc (one of last by then unresolved problems of technical mountaineering Alpine) ^{[9] [7] [2]} .

In the early 1960s, along with Bonington, Willans made five attempts to climb the Eiger North Face , but all of them were unsuccessful - they retreated four times due to weather, and for the fifth time (in 1962) they rescued British climber Brian Nelly, whose climbing partner Barry Brewster died as a result of rockfall ^[10] . To save someone constantly became for Willans a kind of addition to ascents. In 1958, on the Bonatti route, for two days he dragged Mackines onto himself, to whom a fallen stone broke his skull. As Bonington later said: “ Thanks to Don’s strength and leadership, we were able to climb and go down ... There, on Drew, I discovered that Don was much more than just an excellent climber ... If things go wrong, it's hard to imagine the best partner. He was incredibly reliable, never jerked and retained a sense of humor, which allowed him to keep the situation under control . ” In 1971, on Everest, he saved the Indian ascendant Harsh Baguna ( English Harsh Baguna ), and in 1974 in Patagonia Mick Coffey ( English Mick Coffey ) ^{[7] [8] [2]} .

In 1957, Willans first visited the Himalayas as a member of the Manchester Himalayan expedition to Masherbrum under the leadership of Joseph Walmsley ( born Joseph Walmsley ). Despite the fact that it ended unsuccessfully (it was possible to reach an altitude of 25,300 feet (~ 7600 m), Willans gained rich experience in it. ^[11] In 1960, he became part of the first expedition to Trivor (leader ), which ended in a successful ascent, but due to illness, Willans himself was unable to take part in the final assault: " Don Willans did more than anyone else to reach the summit of Trivor. And all the sadder that the summit turned away from him " ^{[ 12]} . January 16, 1963 he resigned with Bonington Central Tower w willow ( Engl. Central Tower of Paine) in Patagonia ^[13] , and in autumn 1964 Uillans headed own Himalayan expedition to Gaurishankaru (it is composed of , Terri Burnell, Ian Howell, Des Hadlum and ), but, despite all the efforts of climbers, they could not take the peak due to weather and high avalanche danger ^{[14] [2]} .

The climax of Willans' career in mountaineering was the climb on May 27, 1970 with Dougal Haston along the south wall to Annapurna , on an expedition to which he was invited by Chris Bonington despite the fact that by that time he had a reputation as a drunkard (but at the same time remained the most experienced the British Himalayan, moreover, by this invitation, Bonington compensated Willance for the insult for climbing Eiger together with Clough (in 1962) after their joint unsuccessful attempts). This climb was a breakthrough in mountaineering, laying the foundation for climbing the Himalayan giants along new extremely difficult routes: “ Our climb to Annapurna was a breakthrough into a new dimension ... is the beginning of a new era ... ” ^{[15] [16]} .

After the expedition to Annapurna, Don took part in two expeditions to Everest along the southwestern wall (1971 - an international expedition led by and the expedition of Dr. (1972) ^[17] ), to Tirich-Mir ( 1975), Shivling (1981) ^[18] , Broad Peak (1983) and several others.

However, since the mid-1970s, his sports career has declined. He drank a lot and smoked, content with a self-created image. Bonington recalled how in the early 1980s, before filming a production climb with Willans for a television documentary, Don drank a bottle of whiskey the day before, and the next day Chris literally dragged him along a route that he would have walked with ease. “... it was very sad to see a person of such abilities in his condition ” ^[3] .

Don Willans died at home on August 4, 1985 in a dream of a heart attack. He was 52 years old ^[3] .

Don Willans was married to Audrey Wittall (nee) ( Eng Audrey Whittall ) ^[19] . His wife accompanied him on many trips around the world - to in Patagonia, to , to in the Andes , through the jungle to Roraima , and also on expeditions to the Himalayas ^[2] . Willans was a phenomenally popular lecturer, in many respects this was facilitated by the image of the working-class macho - his simplicity, his love of booze and his natural wit. According to the biographer of Willans Jim Perrin, as well as contemporaries of Don, he became perhaps the most iconic figure of British mountaineering of the XX century, “ who knew how to express more everyday wisdom in one witty sentence than many of us comprehend it in our whole life ” ^{[20] [2]} .

Despite his achievements, Don Willans was not awarded any state awards or honors. His name is the shelter - Don Willans hut in the tract ( eng. Don Whillans Hut ) Park Peak District ( Staffordshire ), where Willans made his first steps in mountaineering (in the care of the ) ^{[ 21] [22]} . In 2005, his biography The Life of Don Willans, written by , was published, and in 2014 the documentary, Don Willans: Myth and legend ”( eng. Don Whillans Myth & Legend ) ^[23] .

In addition to the fame that Willance brought to the climb, he was also known as a developer of climbing equipment. Among his know-how is a lower harness (designed specifically for the 1970 climb to Annapurna and becoming a “classic” that has survived to this day practically unchanged) ^[24] , an assault backpack (Karrimor Whillans Alpinist Rucksack), an ice hammer (the famous Whammer, who became the forerunner of ice-fifi ^[25] ), as well as the model of the storm tent - Whillan's Box ^{[2] [20]} .

• Maurice Isserman, Stewart Weaver. Fallen Giants. A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes. - Yale University Press. - USA, 2008. - 592 p. - ISBN 978-0-300-11501-7 .
• Jim Perrin. The Villain: The Life of Don Whillans. - Random House, 2010 .-- 368 p. - ISBN 9781446409480 .

• Don Whillans - the 'ard little man in the flat' at (neopr.) . SummitPost.org.