Former CCPR chairman Bob Pettigrew has been made a Member of the British Empire in the New Year Honours list. The award was made for services to mountaineering.
Bob, who chaired the Alliance between 1995 and 1998 when it was called CCPR, came to precedence in the alpine world at university in Loughborough where, as chairman of the University Mountaineering Club, he led a number of British, Irish and European explorations. Although these expeditions were common to a number of universities at the time, Bob’s were remarkable in so far as he recorded a number of first ascents of European Alps, from Lyngen in Arctic Norway to the Central Italian Alps – a notable feat for a student with such limited experience and support.
The mountaineering community owes much to Bob for his efforts to extensively chart the Kulu region of the Punjab Himalaya. He was the first man to conquer a number of its peaks and passes, including some at the very highest and toughest class of altitudes (over 18,000 feet).
Whilst Bob has continued to trek and climb throughout his life – marking his 80th birthday with a return to the Kulu region – he also devoted his life to serving mountaineering. He has given long-term service to the North York Moors National Park Authority. Over a sixteen year period, he has also been a member, and chairman, of the Mount Everest Foundation Screening Committee. Bob’s efforts to support fellow climbers were recognised by his governing body, the British Mountaineering Council, when his peers elected him president of the BMC in 1974.
Bob also served the Mountain Training Board, the organisation which delivers leadership skills to mountaineers, as its president for more than a decade ensuring that the skills required to climb safely have continued to develop. He is past-president of the Access and Conservation Commission of the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation, the UIAA (the world body representing mountaineers of 88 federations from 66 nations). And domestically, he was a founder member of the Access Focus Group of the Sport and Recreation Alliance, where is also a Honorary Member and Vice President.
Emma Boggis, chief executive of the Alliance, said, “It is a very well deserved honour to reflect the contribution Bob has made to mountaineering both nationally and internationally. We are also grateful to the service Bob has provided to the CCPR and then the Alliance over the years.”
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