Kay Richard

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Biografie:
RICHARD KAY (1879- 1955)
Richard Kay was born on January 31. 1879, and died in Manchester on March 12 last. He was educated at Rolle, near Lausanne, and as a schoolboy had embarked on climbing and made numerous small expeditions in the Oberland, Valais, and near Chamonix.
He was a shipper of cotton and woollen goods and had travelled widely in the early years of this century, and took what opportunities he could of mountaineering during his journeys. He climbed El Misti and Chachani (both over 19.000 ft.) and various lesser summits in Peru in 1903-4, and made a number of small climbs on the Chilean-Argentine frontier in 1904-5. During the years 1906 to 1908 he was in China and Japan, but could only carry out minor climbing when up country.
The majority of his more serious Alpine climbing was done after the first War, but he had well before that been bitten with ski-touring and between 1909 and I9I3 he visited the Oberland regularly in January-February and made numerous cross-country journeys on ski, as well as some actual climbs (the Jungfrau he climbed three times in winter). Skiing, in fact, was probably a greater interest with him than actual climbing ; he went many times to the Engadine in winter and played an important part in opening up Zermatt as a winter resort. He presented Zermatt with a ski-jump, which was named the ' Kay Jump ' after him.
Unluckily, in I929 his party climbing on the Dent Blanche was involved in an accident, his guide Franziskus Taugwalder being killed by a rock dislodged by a party above (A.J. 41. 435), and he himself having a narrow escape. He had been climbing with Taugwalder for ten years and after this incident he never climbed again. As a result, he dropped out of mountaineering circles, though remaining very faithful to the Alpine Club.
T. S. Blakeney
Quelle: Alpine Journal Vol. 60. Nr. 291, 1955, Seite 406


Geboren am:
31.01.1879
Gestorben am:
12.03.1955