| From: | United Kingdom 🇬🇧 |
| Gender: | Male |
Robert died aged just 17 while climbing at Gogarth with Arnis Strapcans. Ken Wilson writing in Mountain 27:
In the North Stack area there was a serious accident on Spider's Web. Two young climbers, Arnis Strapcans (16) and Robert Brown (17), had overcome the first three pitches without undue difficulty but had located their stance, off route, above and to the left of the normal stance, which is just above the lip of the overhang. The normal final pitch moves right at this point and follows a VS crack on the Britomartis wall. Strapcans, however, mistakenly tried to force a more direct exit up the overhanging wall and steep rib above and left of the stance.
Brown was belayed on three pegs (in a corner crack). He was facing inwards and sitting astride a boss of rock. When Strapcans had only climbed a short distance up the pitch a spike (which held his only runner) crumbled under his feet and he fell. The strain came on the second, the pegs were plucked from the crack, and both climbers fell into the sea, a distance of about 100ft. Strapcans remained conscious and was thrown on to the rock below Genuflex by a big wave. Brown was unconscious, however, and although Strapcans tried to pull him out he was unable to get the body more than half out of the water. He therefore secured the rope to a bollard and soloed up the normal descent route to get help. He was so exhausted, however, that he collapsed at the North Stack quarry and slept the night in a derelict hut. The following morning, still in a shocked and exhausted condition, he made his way to the South Stack tea rooms. Rescuers were called out but on reaching the scene of the accident they found that Robert Brown's body had been washed away by the sea. [1]
[1] Mountain 27 (1973), page 13 /library/9631/mountain-27