BIRTLES, Geoff [editor and contributor]. Alan Rouse. A Mountaineer's Life. London, Unwin Hyman, [1987].
8vo. Original boards with illustrated dust-wrapper (not price-clipped); pp. 224; plates after photographs, illustrations in the text; front fly leaf with faint spot; otherwise very fresh and clean.
First edition, inscribed by a large number of contributors to the collection of commemorative essays written by the fellow climbers of Alan Rouse who died on K2 in August 1986, after having reached the summit. This had been the first successful British ascent and a severe storm killed Alan, Julie Tullis and three of the mountaineers. The library of the British Mountaineering Council is named in honour of Alan Rouse. The front fly-leaf is filled with the signatures of the following contributors and mountaineers, Geoff Birtles, Susan Rose, Deborah Sweeney (Alan's girlfriend), Dennis Hay, Rab Carrington (with his typical RAB signature), Nick Parry, Paul Nunn and others.
Provenance: Nat Allen's copy signed and dated October 22nd 1987, the day the book was launched at a civic reception at Sheffield Town Hall (Nat Allen's gold-edged invitation card loosely inserted). The British mountaineer Nat Allen was instrumental, together with Paul Nunn and Dave Gregory, in reviving the British Mountaineering Council's commitment to producing climbing guides to the Peak District.
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