Kretschmer John Martin

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Biografie:
John Martin Kretschmer (1916-1992)
During the last fifty years I numbered the Kretschmers, first Nully and then Jo, amongst my closest friends. During the war years Nully and I and John Barford climbed a lot together in Wales and the Lakes. Eventually, as we were successively bombed out, we three coagulated in a flat in London, only to be broken up again in 1947 when Nully and John were both killed in separate accidents in the Alps. It was shortly after that that I first met Jo.
During the war he served with distinction in the Royal Engineers in Africa, India and Burma and also as an instructor in winter warfare in Scotland where his skills as a ski-mountaineer were invaluable for teaching others.
In the 1950s probably the most potent influence on his climbing activities was his friendship with Wilt Noyce. He could not fail to have been influenced by Wilt's qualities of leadership and climbing skills, so often concealed under a mantle of humility. Like Nully, Jo seldom left any record of his achievements, valuing them only for themselves or for the shared companionship they brought. In those days those of us in industry with our routine two weeks annual holiday had little chance to travel abroad, and air travel had hardly begun, so most of his climbing was in the UK. It wasn't until we were much older, and indeed after we had retired, that I made many expeditions with Jo and Mike Low (another AC member, who died in 1990), when we climbed in the Pyrenees or trekked in Nepal or had three or four geriatric walks, carrying some 40lbs, for four or five days through the wildest parts of the western highlands of Scotland.
We were all engineers of moderate success and mountaineers of no great distinction, yet active enough to value the experience of stretching our powers to the limit. We were lovers of wild places, especially when approached by sea on the wings of the wind and enjoyed seeking out the wild creatures and flowers we found there.
Jo served the Alpine Club as Treasurer for three years and the Mount Everest Foundation for sixteen years.
As John Hunt has said in his note, 'Jo was a wonderful companion and a person whom it was easy to love'.
Alan Pullinger
John Hunt writes:
I don't remember how or when I first met Jo. It must have been shortly after the War, when he had been demobilised. Probably it was Wilfrid Noyce who introduced us. However that may be, it marked the beginning of a friendship of over forty years. When I was appointed to launch the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, he was one of my first choices, among the many friends on whom I could rely to promote its growth, in the voluntary role of an Award Liaison Officer. I fancy that one of the first climbs we did together was Crib Goch Buttress. In the following years we skied together in the Cairngorms, climbed on Arran, Lundy and in North Wales. We climbed in the Alpes de Provence; we traversed the Haute Route from Argentiere and, on two especially memorable occasions, climbed the Matterhorn and the Aiguille Meridionale d'Arves in very bad weather.
Perhaps the happiest memories which Joy and I shared with Jo and other friends were visits to various islands, partly to watch the sea birds at nesting time. Lundy was our favourite island, but Arran, Skomer Skokholm, Grassholm, the Fame Islands were all part of the repertoire, year after year, in late Mayor early June. Perhaps the most exotic of all those dream island days was a visit to the Galapagos archipelago. Sark, in 1991, was to be the last occasion, for when the time came to explore the Orkneys the following year, Jo was already too ill to accompany us. His love and knowledge of birds was considerable. I, who had first fired his enthusiasm, found renewed delight in learning from my former pupil. He rejoiced in coastal scenery, as he did in mountains; with friends, we walked several of the coastal footpaths.
As a climber, Jo made no pretension to be brilliant; one of his most appealing features was his modesty. But he had done some hard routes with Wilfrid Noyce, and on a rope he was solid, dependable, unflappable: an ideal second. Above all, he was a wonderful companion, relaxed, sensible, interesting in conversation, informed and enthusiastic about many matters. Jo was a person whom it was easy to love.
Quelle: Alpine Journal Vol. 99, 1994, Seite 324-326


Geboren am:
1916
Gestorben am:
1992