Briggs Chris

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Biografie:
Chris Briggs
All those who knew Chris Briggs will be very sorry to know that he died in October 1992. He was a Life Member of the Himalayan Club and of the Mountain Rescue 8c Climbing Clubs of Snowdon and he and his wife ran the Penny Guryd Hotel in North Wales and were well known. And there was, among other things, the Annual Reunion of the Everest 1953 party, with Sir John Hunt and Sir Edmund Hillary taking a large part in the proceedings. Chris did a lot of work among climbers in the Himalaya and in Snowdon, where he was awarded the BEM and was High Sheriff of Cumberland. He and his wife ran a hotel which was very popular among climbers and others. Once when the Earl of Snowdon brought the Prince of Wales in unexpectedly, the latter asked if 'shepherd's pie' which was on the menu was a good dish; and Chris replied that Welsh shepherds were usually very tender.
R. E. HOTZ
Quelle: Himalaya Journal, Vol 49, 1993, Seite

Christopher Percival Baskin Briggs (1913-1992)
Chris Briggs always remained an unmistakable Yorkshireman despite the fact that he lived in North Wales for the last 45 years of his life. His arrival at Pen-y-Gwryd in 1947 marked the beginning of a new epoch in the already long and varied history of that hotel. Somehow he and his wife Jo created an atmosphere quite different from that of any other hotel in Wales or anywhere else (except possibly the Old Dungeon Ghyll in Langdale), and this special character was largely a reflection of his own personality.
The move to Wales was a bold one. He had previously been an industrial chemist and had no experience whatever of hotel management. In 1947 petrol rationing was still in force, and for two or three years the hotel was seldom overcrowded. Chris could even do some rock climbing in his spare time. In the evenings the smoke room at P-y-G was the obvious meeting place for climbers, who were often non-resident but were very welcome to stay on until long after closing time. Soon, however, the demands of actually running the hotel became enough to occupy Chris's time very fully, all the more so because of the special problems created by its exposure to gales and driving rain and its liability to being cut off from civilisation for days at a time in the winter months.
For a good many years Pen-y-Gwryd was the official Mountain Rescue Post for accidents in a large part of Snowdonia. Later this job was taken over by professional organisations based elsewhere; but originally Chris Briggs and any volunteers who happened to be in the hotel would turn out as soon as an accident was reported, whatever the hour of day or night. Such rescues often involved working in storm or blizzard conditions, and over the years they saved many lives. Chris's organisation and leadership of this work was recognised, some people thought inadequately, when he was awarded the BEM.
In his younger days, Chris Briggs's views on most matters, including colour, were decidedly reactionary. So far as Pen-y-Gwryd was concerned, anyone whose skin was even faintly off-white was quickly shown the door, if indeed he ever got inside it. These views were put under severe strain, and had to be actually modified a bit, in 1953, when the news came through that Everest had been climbed. For there was no doubt that Sherpas had played a great part in the expedition's success and that one of them had even got to the top. Henceforward Sherpas were made more than welcome at P-y-G under some unwritten new rule; and in fact this was only the thin end of the wedge, for within a few years Indians too were climbing Everest and were being received at the" hotel with similar hospitality if they visited England. Not surprisingly this hospitality soon began to be reciprocated, and the wheel came full circle when Chris and Jo Briggs began to find themselves paying regular visits to Darjeeling or Nepal, generally as guests of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation. In the hotel itself there are many relics which bear witness to Pen-y-Gwryd's close association with the 1953 expedition, the members of which foregathered there annually for many years at the appropriate weekend at the end of May.
Yet although by its situation and many of its associations Pen-y-Gwryd was very much a mountain hotel, it was far from being a hotel primarily for climbers. Climbing was never the main topic of conversation in the evenings, and most of the residents were there to enjoy the mountain walking, not in order to climb the rocks. A high proportion of the guests revisited the hotel year after year, and many of them, from many different walks of life, became personal friends of the family. In his heyday, which lasted the best part of 40 years, Chris seemed to need no sleep. Armed with his modest half-pint silver tankard, he would be in the smoke-room, usually standing against the wall, from the end of dinner until the last guest went to bed in the small hours. Yet he would be up and about, apparently as fresh as a daisy, long before the gong sounded for breakfast.
A regular feature in Chris and Jo's calendar was an annual fortnight's visit to southern Spain, which was responsible for the exceptional quality of their sherry. For many years, too, Chris had a fortnight's skiing holiday, always at Kitzbühel. But, so far as sport was concerned, his main addiction was to salmon fishing and, in particular, to fishing a stretch of water on the river Lledr. In the salmon season he would disappear there for as much of the day as he could spare. He was also a devotee of rugby football. Quite a number of people have occasion to remember the England-Wales international fixture whenever it was at Twickenham; the Briggs family would be dispensing hospitality in the West Car Park from some hours before the kick-off, and the larder and cellar of P-y-G seemed to have been half-emptied for the purpose.
These notes may seem to have been almost as much about Pen-y-Gwryd as about Christopher Briggs. If so, the reason appears in the first paragraph namely that what P-y-G stood for reflected what Chris himself stood for: such things as friendship and the straightforward enjoyment of life, which were always so important to him. He was a much liked and much respected figure in North Wales, and it was a remarkable tribute to him when, some 25 years ago, such an undisguised son of Yorkshire was chosen to serve as High Sheriff of the very Welsh county of Caernarfon.
David Cox
Quelle: Alpine Journal Vol. 98, 1993, Seite 339-340


Geboren am:
1913
Gestorben am:
10.1992