Brazier Andrew

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Biografie:
Andrew Brazier 1953-1986
Andrew Brazier grew up in Bristol. A teacher at the Grammar School introduced him to rock-climbing in the Avon Gorge, and by the time he left school he knew every move on Central Buttress by heart. I met him in 1972 when we both went up to Oxford. I read English, while he took on the more austere discipline of Modern Greats, and I remember well one afternoon when he dropped in to berate me for enjoying the romantic excess of Wuthering Heights. He joined the OUMC in his first term and remained one of its most active and enthusiastic members throughout his time at Oxford-a period when the club was flourishing: Dave Ivory was putting up one of the hardest routes in the Avon Gorge, Roger Everett was making early ascents of some of the great Alpine routes like the Brouillard Right-Hand Pillar and Phil Bartlett and Steve Parr were pioneering new routes in Baffin Island. Andy was not climbing at quite that level, but he was regularly leading 'extremes', as we reverently called the 'E' climbs in those days, and climbing some of the great Chamonix classics like the Gervasutti Pillar on Mt Blanc du Tacul. In his third year he was President of the Club and Editor of the Journal-a job which he invested with characteristic hard work and thoroughness.
After Oxford he moved to London for a postgraduate librarian's course at the University. However, he decided that a librarian's career was not for him and switched to computer programming, where his classics training in logical thinking was a great asset. He climbed less after Oxford, but there were spells of intense activity with the ULMC and times when he would suddenly appear after a long lay-off and surprise everyone by doing something like soloing 'Suicide Wall' at Ogwen. He had always been a keen photographer, and in the early 1980s he produced some extremely fine rock-climbing action photospictures which won prizes at the Kendal Festival and which were published, for instance, in the N Wales Limestone and Tremadoc guidebooks.
I never knew Andy very well, finding him quite shy, and I am probably not the best person to be writing this obituary. However, I was never in any doubt about the friendliness beneath the reserve and the unpretentious enthusiasm of his climbing and photography. He was also very tolerant: Roger Everett recalls an occasion in the Avon Gorge when, bringing Andy up a hard pitch, there was some misunderstanding with the ropes and he accidentally dropped Andy about 15m. Andy just climbed back up again without a word of reproach.
Andy had recently almost given up climbing and was devoting most of his free time to marathon running. No one had seen him for ages. Then one day last May he suddenly appeared at Tremadoc, fit and healthy, cheerfully saying hello to old Oxford and London aquaintances. A few weeks later he was out running and collapsed with a heart attack. It seems a cruel and unfair blow, particularly to his family, to whom our sympathies must go.
Stephen Venables

Roger Everett writes:
Andy Brazier was an important figure in the OUMC of the early to mid 70's, a period during which the Club enjoyed considerable social and climbing success. This was in no small way due to the efforts of Andy, who was a well-liked character central to the OUMC scene. After periods of office in various committee posts, he was elected President and edited the Journal in 1974-75. In those days there was a large nucleus of keen climbers at Oxford, and Andy enjoyed being part of the group that climbed together in Scotland in winter, rock-climbed throughout the British Isles and went to the Alps in summer. He was a genuine all-round mountaineer, leading extreme in the days before 'E' grades, climbing grade IV ice and doing many of the classic Chamonix climbs such as the Gervasutti Pillar, the Swiss route on Les Courtes and the Route Major. He was very good-natured and not prone to the image-building from which some of us suffered in the Club. I remember one occasion when, due to excessive rope-drag, I unwittingly hauled in the rope too vigorously while he was seconding a pitch in the Avon Gorge, which resulted in him unintentionally leaving the rock. Out of sight and hearing, I finally realized that there was some weight on the rope and I let out some slack. As he was now dangling clear of the rock, I had to lower him all the way to the foot of the climb. The only criticism I received after this dreadful display of my incompetence was a cryptic note in the following year's Journal! Andy was also an extremely good photographer, and many of his action shots have appeared in the climbing magazines. The picture on the back-cover of the most recent Tremadoc Guide is one of his, and it shows the quality of his work. He was always so fit and enthusiastic that it is hard to believe that he could die of a heart attack at such an early age.
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 92, 1987, Seite 299-300



Geboren am:
1953
Gestorben am:
1986