My father, Stuart Crampin, who has died aged 88, defined his life as “before” and “after” a catastrophic climbing accident in the French Alps in 1961 which resulted in the death of a friend, Richard Lee, and, for himself, a severe head injury from which it took many months to recover.
Before the incident on the Aiguille du Dru mountain in the Mont Blanc massif, Stuart had been a carefree young man, night-climbing facades of ancient buildings in Cambridge, where he was studying for a PhD in geophysics. He took his many gifts for granted.
