Mountain Clients

An individual has posted on Rockfax, the British Mountaineering Council sponsored web-site today (Dead Guides), Monday the 17 of March asking (siting two supposed such incidents) how many mountain clients have caused the death of their famous guide.

He has sited: Lionel Terray who’s death by a rock climbing fall in which his companion (client or friend ?) also died and, Roger Baxter-Jones who took his client (there was intitially confusion about the client being a friend or otherwise) into avalanche conditions on the North Face of the Triolet above Chamonix in the French Alps (that morning in fact eight climbers died from avalanche related accidents in the Chamonix Aiguilles).

The ensuing ice wall collapse (the conditions were to warm) killed not only both of them, but also four Austrian climbers behind them. According to the original poster, these facts point to dare I say – client error. In fact, neither accident was, can be attributed to the mountain clients fault.