by Mick Ryan On 24th October the great 1940´s pioneer Peter Harding passed away after a long illness. Born in 1924, in Nottingham, Peter was a climbing lifer and has left a legacy of classic routes that thousands of climbers enjoy such as Suicide Wall, Phoenix, Promontory Traverse, Demon Rib, Spectre and Valkyrie. Kim Allen his eldest daughter writes, „In 1947, he moved to Shrewsbury to become a lecturer at the technical college.Skilful manipulation of the timetable enabled him to indulge his passion for rock climbing and Friday lunchtimes would see him heading out to the crags, come rain or shine, returning by midday Monday.At this time he was climbing mostly in the Peak District or North Wales, where he made many first ascents and was considered to be one of the leading climbers of the day.In 1948, he was asked by the Climbers? Club to write a new guide to ?Llanberis? which was published in 1950. The funeral is tomorrow (31st) at Dewsbury Crematorium, West Yorkshire, at 2.30 (all who knew Dad would be very welcome though I realise this is very short notice).“ Kim has kindly sent us a biography of Peter´s rich life, kindly illustrated by Gordon Stainforth and John Beatty. You can read ithere Colin Wells has also written an extensive obituary „Peter Harding: Pioneer of extreme climbing who perfected the modern ´hand-jam´ technique“ at news.independent.co.uk
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