Obituary

Roger Phillips
22nd November 1942 – 19th April 2020

Obituary by Noel Withers

Roger was an all-round mountaineer, rock climber, walker and cyclist. He kept himself incredibly fit and his great enthusiasm for all these activities was still present right until the premature and untimely end. His introduction to the great outdoors was as a young engineering apprentice who was fortunate enough to go on an Outward Bound course. This fired a passion undiminished by age.

His easy-going personality hid a strong determination to push himself to succeed whether on a technically challenging rock climb or in a mountain environment.

With a great many alpine rock and classic routes under his belt Roger had an enormous amount of experience to which could be added Himalayan routes, including the first ascent of ‘Flat Top’, and routes in New Zealand and South America.

He was always considerate and good company and over endless cups of tea at the end of a big day out would offer insight and stories to enrich the experience.

In the last twelve years we have also spent weeks at a time laughing and talking, during long nights cooped up in a small tent, on trips to Nepal, Ladakh, Tibet and Bhutan some of which included ascents of peaks. He was always easy to spend such time with even though he regularly got up half an hour before necessary in order to organise and reorganise his belongings! Roger was ‘easy maintenance’.

Not all activities had to be overly pushy; snowshoeing trips in Europe and Norway and AAC(UK) walks were regularly on Roger’s agenda. He was an enthusiastic and valued contributor to the S E walks and Reading lecture programmes.

He will be greatly missed by the very many and varied groups of people who enjoyed his company on his many different adventures.

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