Brian Pinder Kellett

This article is about the rock climber. For Brian Kellett, the nurse and award-winning blogger, see Tom Reynolds (EMT). For the rugby league footballer of the 1980s, see Brian Kellett.

Brian Kellett
Brian Kellett at Torlundy in 1943
Personal information
Full nameBrian Pinder Kellett
Main disciplineSolo climbing
Born15 May 1914
Weymouth, Dorset, England
DiedSeptember 1944(1944-09-00) (aged 30)
Ben Nevis, Scotland
NationalityBritish
Career
Famous partnershipsJ A Dunster (Number Two Gully); Arnot Russell (Route II); Robin and Carol Plackett (LH Route, Minus Two Buttress)

Brian Pinder Kellett (15 May 1914 – September 1944) was a British rock climber.

The memorial to British rock climber Brian Pinder Kellett (1914–1944) and his parents, in Glen Nevis (Highland Scotland). Over the last two years of his life Kellett pioneered many new routes on Ben Nevis.

Life

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Brian Kellett was born in 1914 in Weymouth, Dorset in South-West England. He was the son of Lt. Richard Pinder Kellett,[1] whom he never knew; Kellett senior was killed commanding HMS Flirt in the battle of Dover (1916). The younger Kellett died with Nancy Forsyth in Castle Corrie on Ben Nevis during the first weekend in September 1944; the exact date is not known. He is buried in Glen Nevis.

Education and career

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Kellett was educated at public schools in south-west England where he gained a reputation as a "perfect all-round sportsman",[2] playing on the cricket and rugby teams and also representing them at boxing (oddly, given his subsequent pacifism[1]). He was a strong chess player and his analytic mind led him initially to qualify in accountancy, but he left the profession in favour of physically demanding forestry work in Ennerdale in Cumbria where he began to climb more seriously than on his early forays on the Tors of Dartmoor. With the coming of the second World War Kellett refused to serve on grounds of conscience and was interned for two years. He eventually proposed serving with the forestry on Skye where he could climb on the magnificent Cuillin ridge, but was posted at Torlundy instead. Kellett was by all accounts industrious, "born to work the land",[1] in the words of a co-worker, and now he could climb again, too: Torlundy is seven kilometres north of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK.[clarify]

Climbing

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The north-east face of Ben Nevis is a two-kilometre-long meandering cliff whose most prominent features are Tower Ridge and Carn Dearg Buttress. The corrie between these (Coire na Ciste) is divided at the back by three major gullies, numbered Two, Three and Four. When Kellett arrived at the face in 1942, Number Two Gully had yet to receive a summer ascent, having defeated both Harold Raeburn ("doyen of Scottish mountaineers"[3]) and G. Graham Macphee, editor of the 1936 climber's guide. Kellett led the first ascent on 30 August with J. A. Dunster, who at one point was forced to shelter off-rope from screes loosed by Kellett above him;[1] sixty years later, the 2002 climber's guide still warns that "in summer the gully has a fierce reputation and is best avoided"[4] (its grade is VS). Nevertheless, Kellett's achievement in 1942 was soon to be surpassed by his relentless attention to the face over the following two years.

Climbers on Route 2 in the late sixties

First ascents

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Kellett left an "unprecedented"[2] legacy[5] of new routes and variations on Ben Nevis in the summers of 1943 and 1944 (page references are to the SMC's 2002 Climbers' Guide, edited by Simon Richardson):[6]

1943
Date Ref Added To (vars) Route (or variation)
22 May p59 35m HSev 185m Sev Main Overhang variation: Bayonet Route to First Platform, Northeast Buttress
29 May p104 125m Diff Lower East Wall Route, Tower Ridge East Face
9 June p180 235m Sev Route II, Carn Dearg Buttress (with W. A. (Arnot) Russell)
19 June p116 55m VDiff 125m Diff Left-Hand Chimney variation: 1931 Route, Secondary Tower Ridge
2 July p197 100m Sev Route A, Carn Dearg North Wall (now Kellett's North Wall Route)
10 July p158 15m VDiff 120m Diff Tower finish: Central Rib, Creag Coire na Ciste
18 July p138 45m Sev 250m VDiff Central Wall variation: Tower Face of the Comb
24 July p118 180m Sev Italian Climb, Tower Ridge West Face
24 July p120 200m Easy Broad Gully, Tower Ridge West Face
25 July p171 150m VDiff Right-Hand Chimney, Moonlight Gully Buttress (with G. (Gordon) Scott and E. M. Hanlon)
25 July p162 75m VDiff The Groove Climb, South Trident Buttress
25 July pN/A c.100m 1943 Route, South Trident Buttress (not in 2002 guide, but in 1954)
?? July p134 140m VDiff Comb Gully Buttress
1 August p91 45m Sev 110m VDiff Direct variation: Indicator Wall
10 August p197 30m Flake Chimney: Carn Dearg North Wall (now Kellett's North Wall Route)
11 August p197 50m Route B: Carn Dearg North Wall (with J. H. B. Bell and M. M. ("Nancy") Forsyth)
?? August p70 90m Diff V-Traverse continuation from The Basin (North-East Buttress) to Observatory Ridge
?? August? p197 20m 50m Route B Direct start: Carn Dearg North Wall
1944
Date Ref Added To (vars) Route (or variation)
17 June p73 45m VSev 420m VSev Beta Direct variation: The Long Climb
20 June p65 275m VSev Left-Hand Route, Minus Two Buttress (with R. L. and C. M. Plackett)
21 June p109 215m Diff Left-Hand Chimney, Douglas Boulder
22 June p194 55m Sev 215m VDiff Straight Chimney variation: Staircase Climb (with R. L. and C. M. Plackett)
22 June p194 40m Diff 215m VDiff Deep Chimney variation: Staircase Climb (with R. L. and C. M. Plackett)
8 July p80 325m VDiff West Face Lower Route, Observatory Ridge
16 July p100 30m Mod Tower Face Crack, Gardyloo Buttress
18 July p109 150m Sev Right-Hand Chimney, Douglas Boulder
20 July p66 275m VSev Right-Hand Route, Minus Two Buttress
22 July p99 140m HVSev Kellett's Route, Gardyloo Buttress
30 July p161 125m Sev 1944 Route: lower tier, South Trident Buttress
30 July p162 90m Sev The Slab Climb: middle tier, South Trident Buttress
20 August p200 c.30m Sev 275m VDiff Direct start: Cousin's Buttress, Castle Corrie (shortened route by 15m)
The north wall of Carn Dearg (Ben Nevis): this part of the mountain held a fatal fascination for Kellett.

Accidents

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Kellett suffered 3 significant falls before his fatal accident with Nancy Forsyth. Perhaps most remarkably in January 1943 he survived falling the length of Glover's Chimney from Tower Gap, a fall of about 300m, losing his ice axe but suffering no serious injury. After one of these falls J.H.B. Bell, a leading climber of his day, became concerned about Kellett's safety as a climber and voiced these concerns to Nancy Forsyth.[7]

Commemoration

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His sister Lorna commissioned a memorial to Kellett and his father in Glen Nevis.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Crocket, Ken; Richardson, Simon (2009). Ben Nevis: Britain's Highest Mountain (second ed.). Glasgow: Scottish Mountaineering Trust. pp. 143–155. ISBN 978-1-907233-10-4.
  2. ^ a b Wells, Colin (2008). Who's Who in British Climbing. The Climbing Company Ltd. pp. 260–263. ISBN 978-0-955660-10-8.
  3. ^ Williams, Noel (1996). Scrambles in Lochaber. Milnthorpe, Cumbria, UK: Cicerone Press Ltd. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-85284-234-5.
  4. ^ Richardson, Simon (2002). Ben Nevis: Rock and Ice Climbs. Glasgow: Scottish Mountaineering Trust. p. 132. ISBN 0-907521-73-8.
  5. ^ Richardson, Simon (2002). Ben Nevis: Rock and Ice Climbs. Glasgow: Scottish Mountaineering Trust. p. 322. ISBN 0-907521-73-8.
  6. ^ Richardson, Simon (2002). Ben Nevis: Rock and Ice Climbs. Glasgow: Scottish Mountaineering Trust. ISBN 0-907521-73-8.
  7. ^ Ken Crocket & Simon Richardson, Ben Nevis. Britains Highest Mountain, (Scottish Mountaineering Trust, 2009) p143-155
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