Sancha Tom Luis

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Biografie:
Tom Luis Sancha (1947-1992)
Torn joined the Alpine Club in 1990, proposed by his father, Luis, who has been a member since 1957. Torn and I met that summer in Pontresina on an AC meet and did two climbs together. Thereafter we only saw each other three times. Our friendship promised so much more than it achieved and therein, for me, lies the sadness of his death at the age of 44.
Torn had a thoroughbred AC pedigree through both his father and his maternal grandfather, T G Longstaff. Eric Shipton had also been a family friend and he, Torn and Luis made a traverse of the central section of the Cuillin Ridge during the winter of 1967/68.
Torn made his first trip to the Alps when he was six and subsequently climbed the Sparrhorn in the Oberland aged nine. He continued his apprenticeship during his teens with his father, in both the Patagonian and Chilean Andes during the time that the family home was in Argentina. While at Cambridge he led two expeditions to Ecuador, in 1967 and 1969, making ascents of Cotocachi, IIIiniza, Carihuairazo, Cayambe, Cotopaxi and Chimborazo.
During the next 15 years or so Torn was heavily involved in his work but managed several mountain trips as diverse as cross-country skiing in northern Sweden to soloing Mount Rainier. He also skied the haute route and climbed the Matterhorn. He made a three generation ascent of the Wildspitze with Luis, aged 70, and his children Emily, 12, and William, 10.
Torn had been a whizz at computer systems and became something of a legend within his field. In 1977 'he founded Cambridge Interactive Systems which was so successful that, eight years later, he sold it and 'retired'. Shortly before he became ill he underwrote a canoeing expedition for both ablebodied and physically handicapped young people to Iceland.
Then, in 1987, the cruellest of blows, he was struck down by a brain tumour. For two years he fought with incredible courage, supported by his wife Sally, to overcome this crippling handicap, undergoing major brain surgery and radio therapy, Despite this, in 1989 he enrolled at Plas y Brenin on an alpine climbing course and, later, a sea cliff course. In 1990 having, as it were, re-Iearnt to climb, he joined the Alpine Club. In the spring of that year he and a friend, Wendy Smith, visited the mountains of Jordan and made an ascent of Jebel Rum.
A few months later my wife and I met Torn in the Alps. He spoke rather slowly and deliberately, clearly affected by his brain surgery, and was wonderfully open and honest about his tumour. He and I, with my wife Carol and Daphne Pritchard, formed a bit of a foursome and used to eat together in camp. He was a stimulating, delightful companion. Together he and I climbed the ordinary route of Piz Morteratsch and the East Pillar on the N face of Piz Palu. He was a solid, middle grade son of alpine climber, which was remarkable for a man who had been as ill as he had.
In the autumn of 1990 he went on his third climbing trip of the year and, with Mark Miller and Wendy Smith, made an ascent of Ramdung Go in the Rolwaling Himal of Nepal. Wendy writes: 'Tom was very fit and went strongly. He was suffering from headaches which he thought was altitude but we now know this to have been the beginning of his second brain tumour.' Not long afterwards the second tumour developed yet somehow, despite almost weekly seizures, he managed a final climb of Cader Idris in November 1991, walking slowly on his right side and using ski poles.
In spite of funher surgery and chemotherapy, Tom never lost his composure and sense of humour. In his last days, at home with Sally and his family, he fed himself almost up to his final hours, and only thought of those around him. My own sense of loss has more to do with what might have been rather than what was, for the time we spent together was little enough, though precious, memorable and rewarding.
The final words should come from an old friend, Thomas Forster, who spoke movingly in Churchill College chapel on 14 April 1992: 'To me Tom was the magical older brother I never had - fabulously successful, rich, gifted, worldly, knowledgeable, funny, generous, bossy and endlessly entertaining. Although he was stubborn and often thought to be arrogant he was completely free from personal vanity. He was a total realist. He never grew bitter and impatient over his dysphasia when people tried to prompt him with words to finish his sentences. He had great natural courtesy. Finally, he was a wonderful friend and always such fun to be with.'
Mike Binnie
Quelle: Alpine Journal Vol. 98, 1993, Seite 328-329


Geboren am:
1947
Gestorben am:
04.1992