Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz Alison

(Bearbeiten)

Biografie:
geboren in Birmingham (Großbritannien)
gestorben an der Annapurna (Nepal)

Quelle: Alpinismus Jahrgang 17, 1979, Heft 2, Seite 44

Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz (1942-1978)
Alison was born in Birmingham but grew up and spent her formative years in Cornwall. She started to climb in 1960 while studying at the Slade College of Fine Arts in London and joined a coach of post-graduate students for a climbing weekend in North Wales. From there on she climbed whenever and wherever she could.
I first met her climbing in Devon with Pete Biven about 10 years ago. She was then lecturing in Lithography at Exeter Art College and was already an accomplished climber. She struck me as a shy girl but I soon found her to be intelligent with an agile sense of humour. Full of common sense, she added a welcome touch of sanity to the South West climbing scene. Together with Peter Biven, John Cleare, myself and a few others she climbed regularly on the accepted crags of the South West and spent many memorable days exploring the Devon and Cornish coasts in all weathers, often involving hard climbing over rough winter seas. Alison proved herself to be at least the equal of the male members of the party in both ability and endurance, never shirking the inevitable freezing swim.
At this stage she climbed extensively in North Wales and the Lakes and made her first visits to the Alps. Her cool temperament and exceptional stamina were well suited to the larger mountains and it soon became apparent that she was at heart a mountaineer rather than a rock-climber.
In 1971 she married Janusz, an internationally known Polish climber and caver with whom she made many fine alpine ascents including the N pillar of Palü, the N face of the Triolet and the Swiss Route on the N face of Les Courtes. However, living as she was in Poland, her climbing naturally gravitated eastwards. She climbed extensively with Janusz in the Tatra including many hard routes such as the E face of Mnich, the N face of Kazalnica and winter ascents of the N faces of Nizne Rysy and Miegnszowiecki Middle, the last being a first winter ascent. In 1972 as a member of a Polish expedition to the Hindu Kush she climbed Asp-e-Safed (6608m) and Noshaq (7492m). As a result of these and her Tatra climbs she was selected for the 1974 Polish Alpine Club expedition to Peak Communism in the Soviet Pamir but was unfortunately refused a visa. However she was included in the Polish Expedition to Gasherbrum II and III. She and Janusz were 2 of 4 members of the expedition who made the first ascent of Gasherbrum III (7952m). This was at the time the highest unclimbed summit in the world and will remain for all time the highest mountain whose first ascent included women. As a member of that party Alison holds the British Ladies Altitude Record and she was awarded a gold medal by the Polish Government for “outstanding sporting achievement”.
Alison's climbing ethics were always of the highest standard and on high mountains she wished to compete with men on equal terms with the minimum of oxygen and Sherpa assistance. Perhaps it was for this reason that she chose to accept an invitation to join the 1978 American Ladies Expedition to Annapurna rather than accept a place on the more glamorous Franco/ Austrian Expedition to Everest. On the Annapurna expedition Alison's contribution was crucial, leading the ice-arete between camps II and III which proved to be the crux of the route. After the summit had been reached on 15 October, Alison and Vera Watson were killed in a fall while making a second summit bid.
Janusz and I were 40 miles away at the time on the E ridge of Himalchuli but the news of the accident took nearly 2 weeks to reach him. Words cannot describe the sympathy that I and the rest of the expedition felt for Janusz and Alison's family. We had lost a constant and trusted friend. Britain had undoubtedly lost her outstanding lady mountaineer. For me personally it was the loss of one of the few remaining of a small group of companions with whom I have had some of the happiest and most memorable days of my life.
John Fowler
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 84, 1979, Seite 271

Quelle: American Alpine Journal Volume 22, 1979/80 Seite 347f
Quelle: Der Bergsteiger 1982, Heft 8, Seite 50

1975 1.Best.Gasherbrum III über Westwand,7952m,
(Gilgit-Baltistan,Karakorum,Kaschmir,Pakistan)
1976 Beg.Montblanc-Mont Maudit-Südostgrat „Tour Ronde-Grat (Kuffnergrat)“,
IV,50°,800HM,4465m, (Montblancgebiet)
1978 Best.Annapurna,8091m, (Himalaya,Nepal)

G.Schauer


Geboren am:
04.02.1942
Gestorben am:
17.10.1978