David Knowles(1947-1974)
- Additional Crew
David Knowles was a professional mountaineer and guide. He was part of the Glencoe Mountain Rescue team in Glencoe, Scotland. He was born in Penwortham, Preston, Lancashire, England, on July 20, 1947. His mother came from Lancashire farming stock, and his father, a Yorkshireman, was a riding instructor in the army and then a mounted policeman. David and his twin brother, Dudley, spent much of their childhood on their great aunt's farm in the Fylde of Lancashire. As schoolboys their free time was devoted to walking and climbing in the Pennines and the Lake District. At the age of 16, the two brothers became members of the newly-formed Pennine rescue team. After David and Dudley graduated from London University, they both came to live in Glencoe, Scotland. David worked as a professional mountaineer and guide. In 1974, he was hired by the production of Clint Eastwood's movie "The Eiger Sanction" as body double and photographer, with climbing experts and advisers from the United States, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
By mid-afternoon on August 13, after the second day of filming on the north face of the Eiger in Switzlerland , as light began to fail, a wrap was called after shooting a rock slide sequence. While the team was preparing to be helicoptered off the north face, Mike Hoover remembered they had not taken any footage from the climbers' point of view of the boulders crashing down on them. With his handheld camera, Hoover and 26-year-old British climber David Knowles rappelled down to the ledge and took the needed footage. As they were gathering their gear, a huge rock broke free and smashed into the climbers, killing David Knowles and leaving Mike Hoover with a fractured pelvis and severely bruised muscles. Clint Eastwood considered canceling the production, but the climbers persuaded him to continue, assuring him that they all knew the risks of their trade and did not want Knowles' death to be meaningless.
In the Alps, he had ascents of the Dru N face in poor condition, Eiger N face and Freney Central Pillar. He also did much climbing in Africa, with notable first ascents on Mount Kenya, Kilimanjaro and Mawenzi. In Scotland some of his better known ascents were Dubh Loch monster and Gulliver with Ian Nicolson, Midnight Cowboy, a recent grade V on Aonach Dubh, S Buttress on Stob Coire nan Lockan, vademecum, a suspect ribbon of ice to the left of Hadran's wall and the first winter ascent of route 1 on Carn Dearg Buttress, both on Ben Nevis.
More humorously, he said one of his great epics was an ascent of Observatory Ridge in winter with a BBC television cameraman who had never climbed before, the ascent taking all day and half the night. He was liked by all and is greatly missed.
By mid-afternoon on August 13, after the second day of filming on the north face of the Eiger in Switzlerland , as light began to fail, a wrap was called after shooting a rock slide sequence. While the team was preparing to be helicoptered off the north face, Mike Hoover remembered they had not taken any footage from the climbers' point of view of the boulders crashing down on them. With his handheld camera, Hoover and 26-year-old British climber David Knowles rappelled down to the ledge and took the needed footage. As they were gathering their gear, a huge rock broke free and smashed into the climbers, killing David Knowles and leaving Mike Hoover with a fractured pelvis and severely bruised muscles. Clint Eastwood considered canceling the production, but the climbers persuaded him to continue, assuring him that they all knew the risks of their trade and did not want Knowles' death to be meaningless.
In the Alps, he had ascents of the Dru N face in poor condition, Eiger N face and Freney Central Pillar. He also did much climbing in Africa, with notable first ascents on Mount Kenya, Kilimanjaro and Mawenzi. In Scotland some of his better known ascents were Dubh Loch monster and Gulliver with Ian Nicolson, Midnight Cowboy, a recent grade V on Aonach Dubh, S Buttress on Stob Coire nan Lockan, vademecum, a suspect ribbon of ice to the left of Hadran's wall and the first winter ascent of route 1 on Carn Dearg Buttress, both on Ben Nevis.
More humorously, he said one of his great epics was an ascent of Observatory Ridge in winter with a BBC television cameraman who had never climbed before, the ascent taking all day and half the night. He was liked by all and is greatly missed.
