The Rucksack Club

Author: Sam Salmon

The Rucksack Club

Des Hannigan

Member Posts

I thought I would write a short note about my old friend Des Hannigan; rock climber, poet, writer, raconteur and fishing boat skipper, who has sadly passed away after a long struggle against ill health. I shared many a climb with him over the years. Although Des was not a member of the Rucksack Club (indeed, Des had a somewhat Groucho Marxian attitude towards clubs), anyone who has climbed in West Cornwall during the last thirty years or so will almost certainly have used one of his excellent guidebooks (some may even have met him). In the 1980s he was at the forefront of the successful fight against the placement of bolts on Cornish rock. After giving up fishing for a living, Des became a successful writer and it was this and his love of the Cornish cliffs that led him into taking on the unenviable task of updating and essentially rewriting the Climbers Club guidebooks to West Penwith (Bosigran and Chair Ladder). Des was of Scots/Irish descent, but lived for the great majority of his life in west Cornwall. He leaves his wife Pauline and sons Tim and Dominic. He will be greatly missed.

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The Fall

Member Posts, Members Tales

The Fall   In West Cornwall, the morning of Sunday 4th July 2021 dawned grey, dull and misty, not looking good for the climbing day we had planned. However, the forecast was for ‘improving later’, so we decided to have a look. The drive from my place to the main climbing areas of Penwith takes around 45 minutes, give or take. By the time we got to Penzance things were looking up, so we decided to go and climb on the black stuff at a crag called Trewellard, in the heart of the St Just mining district.   I had been climbing regularly in recent years, although, for various reasons, not as regularly as I would have liked. The previous winter I had trained hard, lost weight, got stronger and fitter and kicked off the climbing year in good style. I should point out that, then and now, I am operating firmly in the lower grades, leading up to Severe and occasionally seconding to VS. My teenage son Dylan, who was with me, had been climbing for about four years. We were feeling good and we were up for it, looking forward to a good season.   The approach to[…]

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The Fall

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The Fall In West Cornwall, the morning of Sunday 4th July 2021 dawned grey, dull and misty, not looking good for the climbing day we had planned. However, the forecast was for ‘improving later’, so we decided to have a look. The drive from my place to the main climbing areas of Penwith takes around 45 minutes, give or take. By the time we got to Penzance things were looking up, so we decided to go and climb on the black stuff at a crag called Trewellard, in the heart of the St Just mining district.   I had been climbing regularly in recent years, although, for various reasons, not as regularly as I would have liked. The previous winter I had trained hard, lost weight, got stronger and fitter and kicked off the climbing year in good style. I should point out that, then and now, I am operating firmly in the lower grades, leading up to Severe and occasionally seconding to VS. My teenage son Dylan, who was with me, had been climbing for about four years. We were feeling good and we were up for it, looking forward to a good season.   The approach to the[…]

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