Gerald Carradus 1940 - 2007

By Virginia Castick

'The Lakeland Ace'

Those who remember Gerald Carradus (member 1966 to about 1980) will be sorry to hear that he died in St. Ann's Hospice on Friday 18th January.

Gerald joined the club in the mid 60's. He moved from Kendal to work in Manchester. He was already a proficient climber having learnt his craft with members of Kendal Mountain Rescue Team. The late sixties and seventies were golden years for many of us. We existed during the week and lived to the full at weekends. No one had much money, only a few had cars, nobody cared what your job was. Ged was a major contributor to the activities of the Club at this time and for the next twenty years until his marriage to Pat and subsequent family caused his life to take a new direction.

Gerald Carradus?

He was renowned for knowing the details of routes, hence the title 'The Lakeland Ace'. Even just prior to his death he could still remember holds and features on climbs we had done together. He was one of the first to have a double rope, but not a lovely kernmantle job, this rope was two 120 feet lengths of No. 2 viking hawser laid. It took longer to untangle it at the end of a route than it ever did to climb up.

John remembers a week at the CIC hut with Gerald, Kevin Mcdonald and Vernon Rushton one winter when the weather was good but the snow conditions powdery. They did many classic routes and were able to watch the sunset from the summit each day, then launch themselves over the cornice on No.3 gully and hurtle down to the Hut in about 10 minutes in one glorious arseade. Ged developed Pleurisy at some stage later and could never tolerate getting cold or wet on winter climbs after that. Instead Pam and Derek Wilde introduced him to skiing and he took to it instantly. He introduced other members to skiing including myself. We carried our skis up to Raise one day, me carrying his old wooden 2metre skis and leather boots. The tow at the time was just a rope. The ones in the know (including Gerald) had a waist belt and hook. Innocents like me had to hold on for dear life and hope you didn't slip backwards faster than you were being dragged up.

Barry Winston also remembers learning to ski with Ged:

Chris Jennings and I approached Ged, subtly, in the pub, leading to an agreement to teach us to ski. So I borrowed some skis from Bob Millward, not of course our average standard skis. Bob had decided that they were too long so he had cut the back ends off and moved the bindings forward. Ged thought this was heretical but he still agreed to teach me.

The Friday morning in Glenshee was bright and sunny as was the whole weekend. Chris and I trudged up through the pylon infested snow, our skis resting on our shoulders. 'Appropriate for Good Friday,' opined Chris. The deal proposed by Ged was that he would show us a technique, then we would practise while he went off and did some real skiing (i.e. down the Tiger), then come back and see how we were doing. This worked more or less. We went through the stages of:

1. Traverse - Ged disappears - Ged reappears to pick us out of the snow - explains what we are doing wrong.
2. Snowplough - Ged disappears - Ged reappears - to pick us out of the snow - explains what we are doing wrong.
3. Stem turn - Ged disappears etc.
4. Etc, etc.

Amazingly it worked. I had a couple of days of misery and created many snow holes, but halfway through Monday morning, I could ski down Sunnyside, using something not completely unlike a stem-christie, without falling over. I could even come to a controlled stop at the bottom. My style would not have impressed the aficionados, or even the cognoscenti, but then I wasn't doing for posing, just to have another skill in the mountains. So fair play to Ged, maybe his true calling was as a ski instructor.

Most of us regarded Ged first of all as a rock climber. He helped many club members to improve their climbing skills as Neil Mackenzie recalls:

I remember Ged well as one of the generous people who taught me to climb in the mid 1970's. He had a nice, balanced, relaxed way of climbing, somehow alert and laid back at the same time. It gave the novice a lot of confidence and something to aspire to. He also had a nice balanced way of giving just enough advice to help the inexperienced partner but not so much that you felt like a novice. I remember his pipe, his Triumph 1300, and some great weekends in the Lakes and elsewhere. Gimmer Crack, Botteril's Slab and Spartan Slab in Glen Etive, all bring back memories that I will treasure.

Ged took part in all club activities including the Fell Race. He introduced me to the wearing of hockey boots for this event before the days of specialist footwear. He never won the coveted cup but always put in a good performance. I remember so many incidents. Walking up to a high camp in Link Cove, he tripped up in the dark. His monstrous rucksack, with a full set of camping and climbing gear, pinned him nose and knees to the ground. When I'd finished laughing I had to haul him to his feet. Usually though, he had to help me. He had to lend me his pipe after a particularly gripping pitch on Cleopatra on Buckstone How. Gerald led it; he was a better climber than me, though we were well suited as partners being the same height and build. We did many classic routes together such as Eliminate 'C' on Dow Crag, Eagle Front, Buttermere and F Route on Gimmer Crag.

Jim Gregson writes:

During the 1970's and 1980's Gerald Carradus was one of those KMC members who hardly ever missed a weekend away and if you went to walk or climb with him you usually had a good time. He was very good at motivating other people to make that little extra effort and he helped quite a lot of folk to push their way through the rock climbing grades. He had an amazing memory for detail, particularly on Lake District climbs, so you could get a coaching session in advance for any number of routes you might fancy trying. Of course, sometimes this information proved to be rather outdated, as Sandy and I found out when seeking out the helpful ring peg which supposedly protected a quite tricky bit of down-climbing to pass an overhang on Esk Buttresses Great Central Climb. Just how we were supposed to abseil from a tiny stub of rust took a bit of working out. The good days and the good routes stick in the memory. Sentinel on Pikes Crag, Scafell and Falconer's Crack on Eagle Crag (shared also with Alan Payne), North-west Climb on Pillar Rock all provided good adventure. As I traversed out to the crux moves on Bow-shaped Slab to make a delicate and exposed step down he calmly called across "Fall from there and it's a 5b pitch to get back up that groove you'll swing into." I crimped my fingers harder than ever.

If it turned cold though, you might have to allow for Gerald's low tolerance. On a route in White Ghyll we were suddenly caught in a rapid snowstorm which quickly coated the crag and we climbed brushing snow off the holds. At the top Gerald rushed off to find his hat, coat and gloves, leaving me to coil and carry hundreds of feet of wet rope to where he shivered violently at the base of the crag.

As 'The Lakeland Ace' Gerald took a fair bit of ribbing at times, usually with very good nature. His own impish sense of humour was never so far away, and he knew how to use it. In the top pitch of Gimmer Crack there is an awkward overhang. While trying to overcome this I fell off and badly banged my elbow as Gerald held me on the rope. We changed places for him to lead and as he dealt with the overhang Grinning wickedly, he said, 'Did you miss this massive jug on the left? I'll just stop here a moment and light me pipe.' Then he steamed up to the top.

Perhaps Gerald's most notable adventure was the completion of the Haute Route in the Alps. Alan (Liverpool) Jones also took part and writes as if it was yesterday:

Our greatest adventure was the Chamonix-Zermatt High Level Route on skis, which we successfully completed in 1981. The party of 11 included Peter Walker and other skiing friends of mine. We had no official 'guide', I did the organisation and another member of the party did the technical leading. On the first day Gerald fell over and badly bruised his calf. I suspect that he tore muscles too as his calf had a hollow in it for years after. Nevertheless he carried on in great pain to the end. I think this is typical of his grit and determination Our notional leader told me when I was negotiating arrangements with him that from his previous experience of doing the route it was unlikely that more than half the party would complete it. There are nearly always dropouts from fatigue, injury or equipment failures. I was therefore thrilled that we did all make it. However, the key thing was that we were very lucky with the weather. I know Ged was particularly pleased with this achievement as we gathered he never stopped telling people about it at the time.

Jim and I visited Gerald several times whilst he was in hospital. He never lost his sense of humour and although shocked to learn he was terminally ill, he bore it with much stoicism.

Good climbs, good times. He was a good friend. I couldn't agree with you more Jim.

Virginia Castick

With contributions from:

• Jim Gregson
• Neil Mackenzie
• Alan (Liverpool) Jones
• Barry Winston.