Nicholas Clinch
Nicholas Bayard Clinch III | |
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| Born | November 9, 1930 Evanston, Illinois |
| Died | June 15, 2016 (aged 85) Palo Alto, California |
| Occupations | Mountaineer, lawyer, author |
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Nicholas Bayard Clinch III (9 November 1930, Evanston, Illinois – 15 June 2016, California) was an American mountain climber, lawyer, author and environmentalist. Clinch Peak, in Antarctica, was named for him in 2006.
Education and personal life
[edit | edit source]The son of Virginia Lee Clinch and Nicholas Bayard Clinch Jr., a colonel in the U.S. Air Force,[1] Nicholas "Nick" Clinch grew up in Dallas, Texas, and later attended the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell. He graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in political science in 1951, then obtained a degree from Stanford Law School.[2] He followed his father into the Air Force, but due to his asthma and poor eyesight, was unable to qualify as a pilot. Instead, he worked as legal consul at the American bases in Iceland and Long Beach. He has one younger sister, also named Virginia Lee. He married Elizabeth ("Betsy") Wallace Campbell in 1964.[1] They had two daughters.[1]
Mountain climbing
[edit | edit source]While attending Stanford University, Clinch became a member of the Stanford Alpine Club and climbed extensively throughout the Sierra Nevada and Yosemite National Park.
He is the only American ever to have led a first ascent of a peak in excess of 8,000 metres (26,000 ft), which was achieved when his team conquered the world's 11th highest mountain, Hidden Peak (Gasherbrum I) in north-east Pakistan, in 1958.[1][3] He was a member of the American-Pakistani team which made the first ascent of Masherbrum, the world's 22nd tallest peak, in 1960.[4] He led the 10-man 1966–67 American Antarctic Mountaineering Expedition that made the first ascent of Mount Vinson, the summit of Antarctica, and other high mountains in the Sentinel Range.[1]
He was president of the American Alpine Club from 1968 to 1970.[5] He also made the first ascent of Tibet's Ulugh Muztagh, in 1985.[6] In addition to Antarctica, Pakistan and Tibet, he made numerous ascents and expeditions in the United States, British Columbia, Peru and China.[7]
Legal career
[edit | edit source]Clinch was trustee and then executive director of the Sierra Club Foundation from 1970 to 1981[8] and was an early member of the board of nature-focused consumers' co-operative Recreational Equipment, Inc.[3] In the 1970s, he represented the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, California.[1] He was a director of the Environmental Law Institute from 1980 to 1986.[8]
Awards and recognition
[edit | edit source]In 1967, National Geographic awarded Clinch their La Gorce Medal for his Antarctic ascent.[8] Clinch was made a Fellow of the Explorers Club in 1969 and was elected to Honorary Membership in The Alpine Club, London.[3] For his contributions to mountaineering, the Sierra Club awarded Clinch its Francis P. Farquhar Mountaineering Award.[8] In 2013, he was inducted into the Hall of Mountaineering Excellence by the American Mountaineering Museum.[3] In February 2016, Clinch received the American Alpine Club's Gold Medal, only the fifth to be awarded in 114 years.[9]
Clinch Peak, located at 1.6 miles (2.6 km) southeast of Antarctica's tallest peak, Mount Vinson, was named for Clinch in 2006.[5]
Bibliography
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References
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- ^ In Memoriam section Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine of the American Alpine Journal, 2001
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