Harris Michael John

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Biografie:
Michael John Harris (1925-1959)
Mike Harris, as he was always known, sent his application form for membership of the Club from the base camp below Ama Dablam three weeks before he was lost on the mountain with George Fraser. The application was considered and passed by the Committee after his death, but before it had became known to them.
After graduating in physics at Leicester University, most of his working career was in the employment of Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds at their research laboratories in Wolverhampton where he became head of the instrumentation and control section. There, I am told, his dislike of paper work and details of administration was more than counterbalanced by his first-class scientific ability and clear thinking.
In company with John Neill, also from Wolverhampton, he was a regular weekend visitor to North Wales at all seasons. For most of us our first acquaintance with him must have been at Ynys Ettws or in Pen-y-Gwryd where he would be describing with great enthusiasm and those taut nervous gestures of his the crux of some obscure outlying climb rediscovered by John Neill.
When I came to know him better I was astonished by the extent of his mountaineering experience. For almost the whole of his adult life he had been climbing regularly in Britain and the Alps and his record included classic alpine or other ascents in each of the last twelve seasons. In most years they were not particularly difficult climbs and one might have thought that he did not aspire to greater things. But his increasing experience and ability seemed to develop his self-confidence so that he was able to discard a certain shyness from which he had suffered earlier on. This fact, together with his natural enthusiasm and vitality, enabled him to gain a wider circle of friends and acquaintances including those doing hard climbs at the time.
Like many of them he then discovered that an average climber's margin of safety is not only physical but psychological. If the latter barrier can be resolved then anyone of reasonable strength and ability can, without being physically rash, make astonishing progress. What was unusual in his case was that he was over thirty before he achieved this step which suddenly took him to the forefront of British rockclimbers. In addition, over the years he had developed a very fine general mountaineering sense and route-finding ability, for which I was grateful on more than one occasion, so that I felt he was destined to become one of our really great mountaineers.
His early climbs were mostly in the Zermatt area, Chamonix or the Oberland. Some of his later more important routes were the Tronchey arete of the Gran des J orasses, the Aiguille de la Brenva by the Boccalatte route, the South ridge of the Salbitschyn, the South ridge of the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey and the Younggrat on the Zermatt Breithorn. I was privileged to climb with him during the last two years on the North ridge of the Piz Badile and in the Caucasus on Shkhara and DychTau.
On the Badile we were caught in cloud and storm at the summit and I shall never forget the confident way he led off down by a route which none of us knew. The two Caucasus climbs were exceedingly fine routes and our success was largely due to him. Part of his training for the expedition had been a dash round the Cuillin ridge and an ascent of Cenotaph Corner. He was our star climber and was always happy to lead us out of a tight corner. Then, like many brilliant climbers, he would wonder \.vhy we were finding so much difficulty! He was very fast and I never saw him really tired out. If he ever was then he had recovered by the time I caught up. I don't know where all the energy came from, because on first impressions he didn't strike one as a person with tremendous stamina, but he was strong and wiry and capable of great concentration a compelling spirit.
He was by no means only a mountaineer. To be driven by him over an Alpine pass was an unforgettable and, frankly, hair-raising experience. I often wondered whether an oncoming driver would ever panic and drive over the cliff-edge at the sight of a pale-green Morris 1.000 sliding broadside but under masterly control towards him around what I considered to be a blind corner. I think he was applying the same psychology towards rally-driving as he did to rock-climbing with identical success. I admired him as much for his mechanical genius. He was the best person I have ever met, outside a garage, for bringing life to a broken-down car.
On a more restful pursuit we once went searching for classical recordings in a Moscow store. I could never imagine him sitting still long enough to listen to music but he had a deep appreciation of it. Altogether he was a many-sided complex character but, like a cut jewel, the facets that came to light sparkled with vitality.
G. C. Band
Quelle: Alpine Journal Vol. 64. Nr. 298, 1959, Seite 284-286


Geboren am:
1925
Gestorben am:
1959