[duncan]

Mike Kosterlitz is the first ascentionist of the British route on the Piz Badille (with Dick Isherwood), Fessura Kosterlitz at Orco - Italy's first VII - and other hard things for their time from when he was based in Turin. He also did the second ascent of the American Direct on the Dru.

Seems like he is quite clever too.

[andy popp]

That's very cool.

[SA Chris]

I'm glad there are still many people out there who can think at this level.

[Stu Littlefair]

Awesome..

What a badass.

[jwi]

  What a mensch

There were already a few climbers with a Nobel Prize in Physics. Kendall, Shockley (of Shockley's ceiling), and (tentatively) Schrödinger (whose alpine ticklist seems hard to get hold of). If anyone can think of more that would be a good but hard trivia question.

[James Malloch]

Very cool indeed. Takes me back to my (much simpler) Uni days studying Knots and Surfaces. By far the most interesting area I studied and one I would love to revisit at some point. Unfortunately life and work always get in the way...

[SA Chris]

Schrödinger

Do you think his cat was sitting at home every time he went off climbing wondering it he was alive or not?

[Will Hunt]

Awesome find, Duncan. The journal account of the FA on the Piz Badile linked to by Summit Post is well worth a read. Sounds like an epic!

[Falling Down]

Nice work Duncan - a great story!

[SA Chris]

Schrödinger

Do you think his cat was sitting at home every time he went off climbing wondering it he was alive or not?

Nothing? Tough crowd.

[duncan]

Shockley was born in Britain to US parents and moved back when he was three, so a bit of a stretch to claim him as a Brit. though very much a climber.

Anthony Leggett, another Brit who moved to the US, says "mountaineering in all its forms, from easy strolls to technically relatively demanding rock-climbing, has been a major passion of my life ..."

Another possible candidate for jwi's Pub Quiz is Paul Dirac.  In The Strangest Man (very good) it says he was a fairly keen rock climber (and tree climber) whilst at Cambridge. He climbed Mount Elbrus in 1936 and had a lifelong interest in being in Mountains even if stopped technical climbing. Dirac is perhaps an example of the generally accepting nature of the mountaineering community to odd-ball characters. It's hard to imagine him participating in the more usual University sports.

[petejh]

Schrödinger

Do you think his cat was sitting at home every time he went off climbing wondering it he was alive or not?

Nothing? Tough crowd.

I've both wadded and not wadded you.

[SA Chris]

I won't know until i look.

[jwi]

I learned physics before I had a grasp of colloquial English, so the first time I heard the expression “Curiosity killed the cat” I thought it referred to Dr. Schrödinger's cat.