Mo Anthoine

Julian Vincent "Mo" Anthoine (1 August 1939 – 12 August 1989) was a British mountaineer who climbed extensively in the Himalayas in the 1970s and 80s.

Born in Kidderminster, he left King Charles I School aged sixteen to become a trainee manager in the carpet industry. It was on an Outward Bound course as part of his management training that he had his first climbing experience, and soon afterwards he left the carpet industry to take a job at the Ogwen Cottage Outdoor Pursuits Centre in Snowdonia. He travelled widely in his early 20s, hitchhiking across Europe, Asia and Australia from 1961 to 1963, paying his way by working in an asbestos mine in Australia and smuggling turquoise into Pakistan. On his return to Britain he had a spell training and working as a teacher in England, before settling in North Wales in 1968 and starting a business - Snowdon Mouldings - manufacturing climbing helmets.

Anthoine was a good technical rock climber and made a number of first ascents in North Wales, the best known of which was The Groove on Llech Ddu, a crag on the north side of Carnedd Dafydd. However, it was for his mountaineering that he is best remembered. In the Alps he was involved in a six-day struggle through a storm near the summit of Mont Blanc which killed seven climbers, cajoling others to survive.

In the 1970s and 80s he took part in a number of Himalayan expeditions. In 1976 he made the first ascent of Trango Tower with Joe Brown. Two years later on an expedition to The Ogre, he and Clive Rowland saved the lives of Doug Scott (who had broken both legs) and Chris Bonington (who had broken several ribs) on a gruelling seven-day descent from close to the top of the mountain. The incident attracted considerable media attention, but Anthoine, a modest man, was content to remain in the background and take little credit.

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