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Ian was devoted to his wife Shirley who was also a climber and a successful author who wrote the definitive history of the Pinnacle Club. Frantic digging by various parties, including a following German team, revealed a cyanosed, lifeless form, and swift, effective resuscitation restored him in what one companion described as “the nearest thing he had seen to the resurrection.” Interestingly Ian restarted the tour only 24 hours later, having recovered from both the trauma and hypothermia, and the group successfully finished in Zermatt. However, trips were not without incident and while skiing from the Valsorey Hut, up the Plateau de Couloir on the High Level Route in the mid 1970s he was avalanched. He does a lot of climbing, but he’s never done anything like this. His mother was also quoted, “He’s climbed the Matterhorn? Oh my goodness that’s quick! I feel terribly proud. In a dispatch from Zermatt the headline read – “Mad dog Ian climbs it solo!” The report quoted the Zermatt Chief Guide Godlieb Perren, “a splendid effort which only an Englishman would dare. As befitted his modesty he was astonished and possibly embarrassed that the event became national news on the front page of the Daily Sketch. In 1961, as “a slim 22-year-old student,” Ian did a solo ascent of the Hornli ridge of the Matterhorn in 3 hours 25 minutes, a post-war record. While a student in Rugby he was a founder member of the Rugby Mountaineering Club. He achieved a Diploma in Electrical Engineering in 1962 (aged 23) and was a Member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers. On leaving school he went to Rugby College of Engineering, and while there worked as an apprentice electrical engineer at the AEI works in Rugby. The following year he attended a rock climbing course run by Hamish McInnes. His first recognised rock climb was in 1956 on the Idwal Slabs. Ian was educated at King Edward VII Grammar School in Kings Lynn and clearly started climbing when at school as, it is rumoured, his initials can still be found at the top of the bell tower, which was reached at night from the dormitory and along the roof. His mother was a council clerk who later ran a tobacconist and confectionery shop in Sheringham High Street. He never knew his father who was tragically killed in an industrial accident when he was two years old. An area not renowned for its hills, although Ian claimed to have climbed Beacon Hill (105m) the highest point in Norfolk. He was born on the 18th January 1939 just a few tense months before the Second World War and was brought up in Sheringham in Norfolk. Ian was excellent company while pursuing any of these activities.
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Mountaineer, alpinist, rock climber, ice climber, ski mountaineer, skier and hillwalker, Ian was all of these because of his love and enjoyment of the great outdoors. He was 66 and his death stunned all those who knew him.
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On 14th January 2006 Ian Angell died from a head injury sustained after a fall while hillwalking on A’Chrois in Arrochar.