Rope Boy

Dennis Gray first climbed as a schoolboy, with the ‘Bradford Lads’, a group that emerged in the 1940s and remained united for many years. In 1954, when called up for National Service, he was posted to Manchester where he would go on to climb with the finest talent in the country: members of the Rock and Ice club – Joe Brown, Don Whillans, Merrick ‘Slim’ Sorrell, Ron Moseley, Nat Allen, and many others.

A brief posting to Innsbruck in 1955 gave him his first taste of Alpine rock, and countless more Alpine visits then followed throughout the sixties, as well as a visit to the Himalaya, which led to the first ascent of the Manikaran Spires. In 1966 he led an expedition to film the first complete ascent of the north ridge of Alpamayo in the Cordillera Blanca range in the Peruvian Andes, and two years later led another which made the first ascent of Mukar Beh in the Kulu valley in India.

Gray became the first general secretary of the British Mountaineering Council (BMC), a position he held for eighteen years until 1989, before later guiding in Morocco, the Atlas Mountains, and the Himalaya. He then returned to academia and has written three papers about various aspects of development in China, after some time spent lecturing in China and researching in Oxford.

He founded the Chevin Chase cross-country race in 1979, one of the most popular running events in Yorkshire, and has published seven books including a novel, a book of poems, and two books of anecdotes and stories. He lives in Leeds, and has three grown children and five grandchildren.