Some very tragic news...Mountain Tracks guests will be saddened to hear that Rupert Rosedale one of the UK's leading alpinists and a trainee mountain guide was killed in an avalanche on Ben Nevis at New Year
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/8436753.stm We send sincere condolences to his family and as a close friend of Nick and his children for many years we publish Nick's tribute to him....
"I first met Rupert in 1992 when he came on an Alpine Intro course that Phil George and I ran. What I immediately noticed about Rupert was his enthusiasm. No matter where he was, what he was doing, or who he was with, Rupert sparkled with a love for life. I knew from the start that mountains and climbing ran deep in his veins. His parents Rachel and Barney had lived in Nepal for many years and Barney was an expedition Doctor on Chris Bonnington's Everest expeditions in the 70's before residing in Marlborough, Wiltshire where I first met them. So it was no surprise that Rupert excelled on the Alpine course and his love affair with the Alps began.
Rupert was desperate to find a way to spend more time in the Alps and pursue his love of skiing so I introduced him to Gavin Foster of Ski Weekend which landed him a ski guiding job for the following three winters in Chamonix. He quickly mastered alpine and telemark disciplines on and off piste and spent all his free time ski touring or ice climbing. His keenness - cramming in climbs before work - and feats of endurance were legendary, earning him the nickname of 'Super-Ruper'.
I well remember this enthusiasm infecting me on a ski tour of the Vanoise. I'd invited Rupert to 'back-mark' me on the week long traverse with six clients. On arriving at the Col de la Vanoise refuge we watched a group of French aspirants descending the South West Face of the Grand Casse. It looked really good but as we had to ski out out to Bourg St Maurice the following day it wasn't on for us. Rupert however had other ideas and pointed out that it was a full moon and why didn't he and i nip up and back during the night! We waited until after dinner and for the face to re-freeze before cramponning for 3 hours to the summit arriving at midnight as the moon obligingly popped up to light our telemark ski descent. We got back in time for a couple of hours kip before heading off with our clients to complete the tour, no doubt full of the joys of spring! In hindsight one of my alpine highlights.
By the mid 1990's Rupert had fully embarked on his career as an outdoor instructor and was actively pursuing the qualifications-train. About this time I had bought Isallt an old farmhouse above Rowen in the Conwy Valley and Rupert, needing a base in Snowdonia, became its first resident. The house needed a lot of renovation and in return for accommodation Rupert set to on the property honing his building skills which he would later put to good use in his homes in Chamonix and most recently Vallorcine. From a nearby farm came Makalu his border collie, a constant companion on countless adventures in the hills.
During this time he became very close to my two young children as they were growing up, forever taking them on short voyages of discovery in the woods around Isallt, this special bond with them ultimately culminated in Rupert taking Archie to the summit of Mont Blanc on his 17 birthday. The sum total of their acclimatization had been re-roofing Ruperts farmhouse in Vallorcine at 1200m, not surprisingly Archie was feeling a bit under the weather in the later stages of the climb but Rupert gently and skillfully coaxed him up.
Nothing was ever too much trouble for Rupert, I don't think I ever saw him get upset or angry about anything, let alone raise his voice, he commanded respect by virtue of his leadership and expertise. So by 1998 I was employing Rupert regularly as a freelance instructor and that summer I invited him to co-lead a canoe expedition down the Nahanni river in the North West Territories of Canada. Equally at home on rivers as he was on the mountains, he brought so much to the trip. From his ability to motivate everyone in the darkest moments {there were a few}, to his boundless energy. This I well remember him demonstrating when he and I took off for a mad dash to the foot of the Lotus Flower Tower in the Cirque of the Unclimables. After 24hours non-stop activity I was utterly exhausted as we made our way back down through forest crawling with Grizzly Bears and yet he somehow managed to keep me going until we re-joined the expedition.
By 1999 I was ready to leave Marlborough and return to the mountains and Rupert was my obvious successor. In the ten years he has been Head of Outdoor Activities at the College, thousands of students have been fortunate enough to have come into contact with Rupert and for many he has made a profound effect. This is clearly shown from the amazing response since his death to the Facebook site: RIP Mr Rosedale set up by one of his former students.
During this period of his life Rupert continued to cram so much in, as well as his demanding full-time job, he was always away climbing. Yet still he found time to meet his wife Ulrika who shared his passion for the mountains and together they set up a loving home in Marlborough for their two beautiful children Ted and Svea and more recently turned their attentions to the renovation of their terrific farmhouse in Vallorcine. In typical Rupert fashion no task was to big and he was determined to do as much of the re-building work himself.
His ambition was to become a mountain guide and bring up his family in the mountains. Not only was he an exemplary son, brother, husband, father and friend, he would have been a superb guide, utterly dependable, always smiling, an excellent climber and skier, just a joy to be out with. For those of us who were lucky enough to have shared time with Rupert, he was a gift, a special man who will never be forgotten."
