Potter Arnold

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Biografie:
Arnold Potter 1910-1974
Arnold Potter was elected to the Club in 1938. proposed by G. W. Young and seconded by C. A. Elliott. He began his climbing career at the age of 10 with an ascent of the Rawyl Weisshorn and he traversed the Grand Muveran at the age of 12. His AC list included a traverse of the Matterhorn. the Zinal Rothorn from the Triftjoch, spring ascents of the Jungfrau, Mönch. Gross Fiescherhorn, Ebneflüh and Mittaghorn with Joseph Knubel and numerous guideless ascents at Arolla including Mont Coilon and the Dent de Tsalion by the W ridge. He also had a season in Norway. which included an ascent of the Store Skagastolstind. He joined the Common Room at Wellington in 1932 as a mathematician of distinction-Cambridge Wrangler-and taught mathematics there for the whole of his career. At Wellington he made daring ascents of the Chapel spire and the 2 main towers which he decorated with Union Jacks in honour of the Jubilee of George V.
We first climbed together. with others in N Wales in the winter of 1940 where he led ropes up the Holly Tree Wall, The Gambit and Crib Goch Buttress. In February. Much against the wishes of the Headmastet and Governors he left Wellington to join the RAF and served as a navigator throughout the war including a long spell in Malta.
After the war, in the summer of 1946, he took a party of Wellingtonians to Arolla where I joined him and I well remember an ascent of the Aiguille de la Za which involved several trips up and down the final rocks so that all the boys could be brought safely to the summit. He continued to take boys to N Wales and to the Alps, but he was handicapped by trouble with an ankle. In later years he took his numerous sons to the Alps. I spent a memorable fortnight with him at Pralognan in 1959, once taking 3 of his sons and a friend up a mountain, their combined ages being less than mine.
Arnold Potter was a gay companion, a sound climber with an intense love of the mountains, a staunch friend and a man of indomitable courage. It was characteristic that he continued with his teaching until a few weeks before his death. The Club can ill afford his loss.
J. A. H. Peacocke
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 81, 1976, Seite 270-271


Geboren am:
1910
Gestorben am:
1974