03/29/2024
From the vaults! A very young and thin Iain Allan, Tropical Ice's founder, having just completed one of the great feats in Kenyan climbing: the first ascent of the 450-foot (~140m) Main Wall in Hells Gate NP.
This photo of Iain at the top was taken on April 15th, 1967. The Beatles 'Strawberry Fields Forever' was number 1 on the UK charts.
Note the attire! This was before climbing harnesses were invented. Iain climbed with a gold line rope, which he tied around his waste... climbing shoes were also still a thing of the future, and amazingly, it looks like he's wearing a formal jacket!
Iain's partners on the climb were Peter Sutcliffe and Chris Wilson, schoolmates from the Duke of York. They defied the old school fuddy-duddies who ruled kenyan climbing at the time and who thought these youngsters were being overly risky and rebellious (they probably were!). The result was some of Kenya'most iconic climbs.
They called the route Quo Vadis, and it is still graded 5.9 with todays modern gear.
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