Fox Crosby Ian Wallace

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Biografie:
Crosby Ian Wallace Fox (1923-1957)
It was an abominable stroke of luck that the first expedition to the Himalayas wholly sponsored by a Club (see A.J. 61. 550) should have ended so tragically. Crosby Fox, the leader, and G. B. Spenceley were returning from a survey-reconnaissance of the Phurbi Chyachumbu glacier in the Jugal Himal, when they were overwhelmed by an avalanche the first to fall for at least a month from an ice-cliff overhanging the key passage of the glacier. The leader \vas killed, together with two of the Sherpas, whilst Spenceley was fortunate to escape.
Commencing in 1949, Fox attended the second Alpine Club Training Meet at Meiringen, and afterwards with W. Kelsey at Arolla climbed the Aiguilles Rouges from north to south, L 'Eveque, and traversed the south Mitre de I 'Eveque, apparently only the third party on the summit in that season. In 1950, again with Kelsey and also David Oxtoby, Fox climbed the Jungfrau from the north-west, a 19 1/2-hour expedition from the Guggi hut, then the Kamm by the Westgrat, the Grünhorn, the Trugberg, the Weissnollen, and the traverse of the Finsteraarhorn. From Chamonix they did the Charmoz-Grepon traverse, and then the Blaitiere.
In 1951 he made the following climbs, as always, unguided : Adlerhorn, Strahlhorn, Rimpfischhorn, Zinal Rothorn, Wellenkuppe, Obergabelhorn, Dent Blanche, Matterhorn by Zmutt ridge, Tour Noir, traverse of the Chardonnet and Argentiere, also Aiguille de Beranger and the Dome de Miage to the Durier hut. In 1952, the year of his election to the Club, he accomplished the Requin by the Mayer-Dibona route, and the Dent du Geant by the North face, Mont Maudit by the Frontier ridge, Les Droites (traversed), Aiguille Verte by the Moine ridge, Col du Plan (North side), Weisshorn by the North ridge, and other climbs.
With Kelsey again, in 1953, they made the first traverse of the season in bad conditions of the Portjengrat, from the Britannia hut crossed the Rimpfischhorn to descend by the North ridge to Zermatt. Attempts on a traverse of Mont Blanc were defeated by bad weather (the party had to descend into Italy from the Col de Bionnassay), and a new route on the East ridge of the Cairnan had to be abandoned when nearly completed on account of verglas, and for the same reason they had to abandon the Mer de Glace face of the Grépon, though Crosby Fox was successful a few days later, having in the meantime climbed the Ryan-Lochmatter route on the Plan.
In 1954, this time with Oxtoby, after a week's training in the Dauphine, they climbed the Forbes arete of the Chardonnet, and the North face of Les Courtes, and crowned their success with the Brenva route of Mont Blanc. Any ambitions in the following season were snowed off, and on one occasion a descent from the Triolet down one of the cliffs to the Pré de Bar glacier was a desperate affair in which Fox's calmness and solid reliability helped the party to safety.
A man of only thirty-four, with such unusually wide Alpine experience of guideless climbing, combined with a natural ability for advanced planning and organisation, and a likeable companionable nature, Crosby Fox was marked clearly as a future leader of expeditions.
By profession, Crosby was a Master Mariner, being the fourth generation of his family to hold a Merchant Service Master's Certificate. After leaving Glasgow Academy, his early training was at sea, where he served from 1940 onwards as an apprentice until the end of the war. At the time of his death, he was a partner in a firm of Marine Surveyors of Hull.
To Rosalie, his wife of less than a year, and to his parents, we tender condolences at the loss of a fine man with a sincere love of the mountains and the things which go with them.
C. E. Arnison
Quelle: Alpine Journal Vol. 63. Nr. 296, 1958, Seite 105-106


Geboren am:
1923
Gestorben am:
1957