Sim John Anderson

(Bearbeiten)

Biografie:
John Anderson Sim (1895-1967)
J. A. Sim was elected an Honorary Member of the Alpine Club in 1947·
He was educated at Wanganui College and then at Otago University, where his studies were interrupted by service overseas in 1918 with one of the reinforcements to the N.Z. Division. Following a family tradition his father was Sir William Sim, Judge of the Supreme Court, and an elder brother the present Sir Wilfred Sim, Q.C. he studied law and practised in Dunedin.
He began his climbing on Mount Cook and became a member of the N.Z. Alpine Club, but he did not become interested in the Otago mountains until 1930. He seems then to have realised that many young men in Dunedin who had been tramping up valleys and over passes now wanted to climb mountains. Needing facilities such as high level huts, they had already founded two mountaineering clubs quite distinct from the Alpine Club with its headquarters in Wellington. The local members of the Alpine Club, one of the more prominent of whom was J. A. Si m, now decided that there must be united action and they very tactfully persuaded the groups to combine and form the first separate section of the N.Z. Alpine Club. The whole affair according to the Journal was 'akin to the principle of unifying trade competition with a merger under a new title'. The development of the new section and very soon of the .Alpine Club itself now occupied every moment of Sim's spare time. For the next twenty-five years there was no major move in which he did not play an important part, for he was in his time editor of the Journal, committee member, President, and finally Life Member.
After the formation of the Otago Section he never returned to Mount Cook. He climbed in Otago without guides and much more seriously, usually at the head of Lake Wakatipu, where he was fascinated by the river flats, beech forests and unclimbed peaks. It was there that the Club, at his suggestion, held its first climbing camp. Like everything with which he had anything to do it was very well organised. In his climbing itself he was just as enterprising. To simplify a new approach to Mount Aspiring he persuaded the Otago Aero Club to drop supplies for his party. The locally made parachutes were not a success and tins of food were scattered about the Bonar glacier, but the idea was quite sound. Sim was just ahead of his time. His ascent of Mount Tutoko, 9042 ft., from Lake McKerrow had its unusual features. As the lake is tidal the party really climbed from sea level. They rowed a boat up the Hollyford River, struggled up through the bush and established high level bivouacs a good effort for Sim who had lately heard himself described as 'the elderly gentleman on the wharf'.
After that season, 1935-36, he was less ambitious but still devoted to Club affairs in particular the Journal and the instruction course which he organised after World War II. Always approachable and very tolerant of youthful frailties, he was the perfect senior member. With his death the Club has lost one of its most lovable characters and a member who played a most important part in its development.
W. G. McClymont.
Dr. R. Scott Russell writes:
By electing J. A. Sim to Honorary Membership in 1947, the Alpine Club recognised his outstanding contribution to mountaineering in the Southern Alps. He had lately been President of the New Zealand Alpine Club and, as Editor for many years, he had established the modern reputation of the Club's Journal. But to some of us who had known him in the early 'thirties, at least as great a reason to acclaim him was because he introduced us and many others to alpine climbing. It was my good fortune to attend the first climbing training camp ever organised by the New Zealand Alpine Club, which Sim arranged in 1930. Our debt to him was still greater than that which men usually owe to those who introduce them to the hills; but for him, we would have had no opportunity for mountaineering training, as both amateur climbers and guides were few in number, the latter in addition being quite beyond our pockets. Few climbers can have received wiser or more kindly guidance than he gave us.
After thirty-five years I remember more clearly than many more recent happenings my first snow climb with Sim and the good humour which his presence generated, even in sodden tents.
Unfortunately Sim did not visit England after he became an honorary member, so the Club had no opportunity of knowing that endearing combination of personal qualities - efficiency as an organiser combined with great modesty, humour, and sympathy for all enthusiasms- which
enabled him to make so great a contribution to New Zealand climbing.
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 72, 1967, Seite 358-360


Geboren am:
1895
Gestorben am:
1967