London, 1970, 1st edition. 320 pp, 32 illustrations. Climbing partner of Brown, Whillans, Patey, etc. Ascents of Alpamayo, Gaurisankar, Alps. Hardcover with DJ, Near Fine or Fine. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaDennis Gray was born 1935 in Yorkshire and started climbing when he was 11, after seeing the great Arthur Dolphin in action at Cow and Calf rocks on Ilkley Moor. He then climbed with a group who called themselves the 'Bradford Lads'. When called up for National Service Dennis volunteered to work as a pay clerk and was posted to Manchester, where he was able to climb with the Rock and Ice club members on a regular basis. He has climbed with some of the best British climbers of the day; Tom Patey, Don Whillans, Joe Brown, Harold Drasdo, Robin Campbell, Eli Moriarty, Nat Allen, Slim Sorrell, Ron Moseley and many more.Gray was on the first ascents of Frisco Bay at Stoney, The Grond on Cromlech, Wombat and Macabre at Malham and North Crag Eliminate at Castle Rock. After several forays into the Alps, in 1961 Dennis was invited to join a group of Derby climbers to the Kulu Himalaya, which led to the first ascent of the Manikaran Spires. In 1964 he and Don Whillans took a small expedition to Gauri Sankar, failing to reach the summit by a few hundred feet. Next in 1966 he led an expedition to film the first complete ascent of the north ridge of Alpamayo in the Andes. The measure of success of this project can be judged by the fact that five members of the team reached the summit and that the film won first prize in an International Competition. He then led the expedition which made the first ascent of Mukar Beh in the Indian Himalaya in 1968, a project which had first captured his imagination in 1961. The climb turned out to be a race against the weather, and the Monsoon broke the day after the summit was reached. He was best known as the first General Secretary of the British Mountaineering Council, a post he held for 18 years until his retirement in 1989.
