Meade Charles Francis
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Biografie:
Charles Meade 1881-1975
In the late thirties 2 men well advanced in years were sometimes to be glimpsed walking on Aran Mawddwy and the remoter hills of Wales. Anyone close enough would have heard the patois of Savoy; he might even have caught the names of routes and mountains on which, in active Alpine seasons and Himalayan expeditions, the 2 men had made climbing history before the First World War. One was Charlie Meade, who died recently at the age of 93; the other was his guide and close friend, Pierre Blanc. The latter was often invited to stay at Pen-y-Lan, Meade's house in Montgomeryshire.
It was with the image of these 2 walkers in mind, and with a lively admiration for the author of 'Approach to the Hills' (a mountaineering classic that ranges effortlessly from the Guglia di Brenta to Kamet, and evokes with impartial skill Christmas at Bonneval or ballooning across the Jura on a moonlight night), that I first met Charlie Meade some 25 years ago. He proved to be a man of unusual and highly attractive personality. As he can rarely have visited the AC since the Second World War, for he was not a 'clubable' man (in the sense that Or Johnson used the term of Boswell), it seems the more important to recall here something of his appearance and character.
I do not know that Meade was unusually tall, but he was so spare that he looked it even in extreme age. His head was small; under a good forehead he carried a rather pointed nose. A suggestion of tightness about his lips was relieved by a smile rarely long-suppressed. There was the merest touch of irony to it. His hands were fine and seemed made for the sensitive exploration of rock.
There was a fineness, in another sense, in his discriminating judgement. His ideas were his own; few men were less amenable to formal regimentation of thought or conduct. (He started the First World War as a 2nd Lieutenant, and so ended it. This must be a unique record for someone of his capabilities and social background.) Himself, on the other hand, he regimented without hesitation, and by Christian values, of which he had no doubt. Yet there was no trace of the doctrinaire about him; his sense of humour saw to that. The impression he gave was of a rare blend of reticence and firmness, and perhaps above all of a courtesy rooted in consideration for others.
For those how knew him at Pen-y-Lan, he comes most easily to mind in his 18th Century library, standing in front of a great wood fire. He bore an astonishing resemblance to portraits of his distinguished ancestors on the library walls, and when he spoke of mountains and mountain dwellers, one caught the tempo and flavour of an earlier age, of Zermatt at the turn of the century, or of Savoie and Dauphine when the upper valleys were still remote and rarely visited.
Though Meade later knew the cruel isolation of age, with the death of a greatly loved wife and of virtually all his contemporaries, the mountains remained. Only a few months ago, he brought out some old books of Alpine photographs. As we turned the pages, climbs made 70 years ago were still vivid to him. At over 90 he retained firmness of step and character, and a mind as sensitive and idiosyncratic as ever.
R. R. Fedden
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 81, 1976, Seite 269-270
Meade Charles Francis, Grafschaft Montgomeryshire (Wales,Großbritanien)
Charles Meade hatte Klettergeschichte vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg geschrieben und war viel auf Aran Mawddwy und den entfernten Hügeln von Wales unterwegs. Sein Bergpartner und Führer sowie enger Freund war Pierre Blanc. Er war auch in den Alpen und im Himalaja aktiv.
Besonders in den Walliser Alpen,in den Savoye Alpen und in der Dauphiné, als diese Regionen noch selten besucht waren, machte er zahlreiche Bergtouren.
1909 1.Beg.Guglia di Brenta (Campanile Basso)-Südwestwand „Blanc-Variante”,V-,50m,2877m,(Brenta)
1910 1.Beg.Alphubel-Westwand im Abstieg „Serakwand“,4206m, (Walliser Alpen)
1911 1.Winterbeg.Matterhorn-Nordostgrat „Hörnligrat“,III+,4478m, (Walliser Alpen)
G.Schauer
Geboren am:
1881
Gestorben am:
1975