2017 Peter

Here are a few photographic memories of Peter.

In the 70s and early 80s he used to come with us on holidays to Scotland, Wales and the Lake District with Mike, Kate and their friends: Karl, Sue, Pam and several other people. The An Teallach and Suilven pictures come from those times.

Later on he went on to much bigger mountains, first in Europe and then in Nepal and Tajikistan. 

The last time I saw him was a couple of weeks before he died, and we spoke of his favourite memories, or ‘Perfect Moments’. One of these was on An Teallach in Scotland, where we saw a ‘glory‘ or Brocken spectre on the clouds below us.

Another moment he was really proud of was getting a whole bunch of school students to the top of Mont Blanc.  

Another was the MBE, not for the gong itself, but for what it represented and the work that he’d been doing for many years: for ‘services to fair access to higher education’.

In Tajikistan he was part of a small team that climbed a previously-unclimbed 20,000 foot peak, Salter’s Peak, and this was also a treasured memory.

Finally being able to give Emma away at Kevin and Emma’s wedding was a very important moment for him.

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Although Peter is no longer with us, we have several of his things that remind us of him whenever we use them. His fancy ceramic knives in the kitchen, and his Peugeot pepper-grinder.

Also we can watch “The Last Waltz” and remember all the bits that he loved. When Neil Young says “They got it now Robbie” I can just hear Peter saying those words. And when Richard Manuel talks about when they were thinking what to call the band, and he says “So we decided that we should just be ... THE BAND!”.