Bill Brooker, one of Aberdeen’s most prominent climbers,  died late last year at the age of 79.

Along with Tom Patey, he was one of a small group of climbers from Aberdeen who pioneered new climbing routes  in the Cairngorms in the 1950s and challenged the dominance of climbers from Glasgow in the Scottish climbing scene.

As well a leading mountaineer, Bill was also prominent in Aberdeen and Scottish mountaineering clubs and organisations.  He was president, and later honorary president, of the Scottish Mountaineering Club. Bill was also involved in the North East Mountain Trust and the Mountaineering Council of Scotland.

He was one of our customers and, although we did not see him in recent years due to his illness, his wife Margaret and daughter occasionally visited our shop in Aboyne.

If you want to find out more about Bill there is much material on-line as well as written material.

One of the best on-line articles is  First and Last Climbs by Dave Craig  in the fine Footless Crow Blog.

Adam Watson’s excellent book  ’It’s a fine day for the hill’ recently published describes the Aberdeen climbing scene in the 1950s and has many references to Bill. 

His prominence in the Scottish Climbing is highlighted in the BBC  website in a background article to the The Great Climb.

There are also references to Bill’s in Scottish Mountaineering Club website and the Aberdeen University Lairig Club   on wikipedia.

You can also read an obiturary in the Scotsman

Bill’s exploits will be remembered by many.