Image © Sir Chris Bonington
A friend of the Boardman Tasker Trust from the outset, Ken’s contribution to mountain writing has been outstanding. Initially a climber/photographer, Ken established Mountain Magazine in 1969. Mountain soon acquired a worldwide reputation for excellence and established Ken as a figure in world mountain reporting. Ken also produced the much loved books, Hard Rock, Classic Rock, Extreme Rock, Cold Climbs, Big Walks, Classic Walks & Wild Walks. The revised edition of Classic Rock published in 2007 was of superb quality and fully reflected Ken’s deep love of British climbing.
Ken established his own publishing company Baton Wicks, which produced a number of excellent books (many of which were entered into the BT Award) and published The Boardman Tasker Omnibus comprising: Savage Arena, The Shining Mountain, Sacred Summits and Everest The Cruel Way.
In recent years Ken has suffered bad health, but he is remembered in the climbing world with much respect and affection. His great efforts in magazine production and book publishing have bought great pleasure to many people and has helped several people get established as writers themselves. Ken was great company whether on the crag, the hill or in the pub. Argumentative and opinionated, he was essentially good hearted and never hid his deep love of traditional climbing values.
When Ken finally retired he handed the keys to one of the world's finest ever mountain literature lists to Jon Barton and his team at Vertebrate Publishing. Jon will always credit Ken Wilson as the inspiration behind everything that Vertebrate produce. And one day, he promises, when they feel they are one-tenth the publishing house Ken was, Extreme Rock will finally get a second edition.
All Baton Wicks titles are now on v-publishing.co.uk
"When Ken Wilson started Mountain magazine in 1969 he opened up the ability to debate mountaineering to the whole world. To those of us who attempted to write about mountains and climbing he was both the sternest critic and the strongest supporter. More importantly, on the hill or on the crag, Ken was one of us.
The man is a hero."
Steve Dean, Secretary & Trustee, Boardman Tasker Charitable Trust