Number in series 59; Year of publication 1966 - Fell and Rock ...

RECOLLECTIONS
OF GEORGE ABRAHAM
H. Westmorland
It was a natural and pleasant incident in passing through
Keswick on the way to Seathwaite and Gable to call and have
a few minutes with one or both of the famous and friendly
Keswick brothers. Living in Penrith and being a young rock
climber, I had frequent opportunities to get to know George
and Ashley Abraham better, especially during the years 1908
to 1910 inclusive. Towards the latter part of this period I was
invited to join them sometimes and did so with great pleasure
and benefit: I was with them on Dow Crag, the Pillar, in
North Wales and, in 1910, in the Engadine and the Dolomites.
These were the early years of this Club and through George
and Ashley I was made a member. On the way to a Club
meet in Coniston George drove me over Dunmail Raise on a
bitterly cold day. It was my first drive in a motor car, and the
car had no windshield. No wonder the memory is vivid.
George's personality and his skill as a rock climber and allround
mountaineer gave invaluable prestige to the young Fell
and Rock Club. Ashley remarked to me once 'nobody looks
less like a rock climber than George, but when he is climbing
he seems to fit onV One of my most vivid mental pictures of
him is as he led us up the verglas-covered steep rock of a gully
in the upper part of Dow Crag. Half a gale of wind was
driving dry snow particles into our faces, our situation neither
comfortable nor particularly secure. When George found a
stance and faced downwards to bring up his second, it was a
tonic to see his cheerful unperturbed face, with wind-whipped
cheeks like bright red apples, as he took in the rope. His
temperament was very equable and good-natured, yet he
could show strength and determination. I can recall a small
instance of these qualities. In those days the hardest to climb
of the Drei Zinnen (now the Tre Cime di Lavaredo) was the
Kleine (or Cima Piccola). We were climbing the Zsigmondy
Kamin route and taking photographs. As we stood on the
ledge below the Kamin thunderheads were gathering and
threatening; Sigismundo Menardi, the guide, said we could
not go on up this most difficult part of the climb in such
threatening weather. George could make himself understood
in German and succeeded in making it clear to Sigismundo
that 'no Zsigmondy Kamin, no pay'. We went on.