Memories of Brian Richardson

By Andrew Walker

Over the past few weeks, I have spent several hours searching my photo album for photos of or including Brian. My first club holiday was to Val d'Isère in January 2009 but my first photos of Brian date from the Tignes trip in March 2011 and thereafter appear with increasing regularity. A year later, in Alpe d’Huez, we discovered we had a common interest in mogul skiing (and why not?) and spent many happy hours pounding the rather battered slopes accessible from the Fontfroide lift.

Most of our skiing was in small groups containing the usual suspects but Brian and I would often go off together, pushing our own boundaries as well as each other’s, in particular off-piste, as well as powder when we could find it. We both learnt a lot from those days out, but more to the point we had some extremely enjoyable days skiing and I have a lot of very happy memories.

In March 2017 the snow conditions were perfect for a dive off the back of Mont Fort at Verbier; something I had for years wanted to do but had never before found a willing accomplice. An hour later we reached the piste, just opposite a café where we sat outside in the sunshine and had coffee and strawberry tarts.

At Tignes in March 2019 we spent several days exploring the Chardonnay Bowl and other areas from several directions and angles, often needing some boot packing, rounding off the holiday with an excellent packed lunch on Petit Balme, overlooking Val Claret, before descending via a short but fairly rocky couloir. The unusually good snow at Sauze in January 2023 meant that we spent much of the holiday skiing the powder among the trees and under lifts.

Brian was also a keen walker. I spent many days with him and others on various SCoM weekends in the Lakes and elsewhere, including the Yorkshire 3 Peaks in August 2023.

I shall miss Brian, as well as his relentless optimism and his capacity for hard labour.