Beard Eric

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Biografie:
geboren in Leeds (Großbrittanien)

Eric Beard (1931-69), simply 'Beardie' to thousands of climbers, hill-walkers, skiers and children, was kilIed in a motor accident on 16 November. Partly, he will be remembered for his amazing feats of speed and stamina amongst the British mountains, but much more for his rare ability to entertain, to make people laugh and happy in his company.The record feats speak for themselves: the Welsh Three Thousanders (five hours nineteen minutes), the Skye Ridge (four hours nine minutes), the four Cairngorm tops (four hours forty-one minutes), the incredible Lakeland twenty-four-hour run (fifty-six summits, eighty-eight miles, 33,000 ft of ascent and descent). Primed on honey butties and hot sweet tea, he remained fleet of foot to the end, for shortly before his death he had run from Ben Nevis to Snowdon, taking in Scafell on the way; this to be followed by his run from John o'Groats to Lands End with variations - 944 miles in eighteen days and a few hours. A Yorkshireman born in Leeds he had left school at fourteen with little in the way of formal education and small, weak and puny in physique. After a succession of jobs, including that of a jockey, he ended up working as a Leeds tram conductor, and was voted number one in a poll for courtesy and cheerfulness by the travelling public. By one of those coincidences which are the turning-point in any life, he started to run at the age of twenty-four when involved in a bet with his tram driver, a former athlete of note. The longdistance bug bit him, and gradually he built up physique and stamina by rigorous training, dedicated as only the marathon man knows how to be. Due to my own interest in athletics I made his acquaintance in the winter of 1955, and subsequently introduced him to climbing, the mountains and my own friends of the Rock and Ice. Quickly he built up his experience as a mountaineer, though he never wished to be or was an extreme rock climber. On visits to the Alps he found himself keenest on, and best suited to, long mixed climbs such as the Frontier ridge, the Old Brenva, and the Zmutt, but he could make a hard rock route when Occasion demanded, as ascents of the Sudverschneidung of the Fleischbank East, the
North face of the Cima Grande and the Piz Badile North-east face prove. Though most effacing about his climbing record, recognition of his ability was made by his acceptance as an A.C.G. member. Though, typically, Beardie inferred that this must have been by mistake!
Beardie was dedicated, besides running, to helping backward or deprived youngsters: a genius with children, he had that same kind of essential simplicity which is usually only the child's. He gave his time freely and brought his athletic prowess to any children's charitable work which asked him. Shortly before his death he ran from Leeds to Downing Street for the Save the Children Fund to help raise money and publicise its work, and a few days after his death he was to have made an attempt on the world twenty-four-hour track record. Once again money raised was to go to children's charities. He was at the peak of his form and would have done his best ever with such an incentive. Once in a lifetime one meets a Beardie. The slopes of the Cairngorms will never be the same, and a part of each and everyone of his thousands of friends and acquaintances, myself included, died with him. Photo: [144].
Dennis Gray
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 75, 1970, Seite 339 - 341

Geboren am:
1931
Gestorben am:
16.11.1969