Don Whillans

Don Whillans (18 May 1933 – 4 August 1985) was an English rock climber and mountaineer. Born and brought up in a two-up, two-down house in Salford, Lancashire, he climbed with Joe Brown and Chris Bonington on many new routes, and was considered the technical equal of both. He was an apprentice plumber when he started his climbing career with Joe Brown in 1951. Whillans met Brown while climbing at the Roaches in Staffordshire. When Brown's climbing partner failed to follow him up a new route, Whillans asked if he could try—and subsequently led the second pitch of Brown's new route, which became known as Matinee.

Whillans had from an early age walked on the Pennine moors; climbing was the next step for an adventurous young boy. From rock climbing he expanded into mountaineering with trips to the Alps where ascents included the "Bonatti Pillar" of the Dru and the first ascent with Chris Bonington, Jan Długosz and Ian Clough of the Central Pillar of Freney on Mont Blanc. In 1962 with Bonington he made the first ascent of the Central Torres del Paine, Patagonia and with Dougal Haston, he made the first ascent of the south face of Annapurna in Bonington's 1970 expedition.

Whillans was attributed with safety and mountain awareness, as evidenced by his retreat from the Eiger North Face on several occasions because of bad weather or rockfall. He had few climbing accidents although there were several near misses, such as when a fixed rope on the Central Torres del Paine snapped and he managed to put his weight on the holds with split-second timing before retying the rope.

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