Alex MacIntyre (1954-1982)
Dirty Alex
MacIntyre, one of the legendary early ’70s Leeds University group, epitomised the last hurrah of a macho era when climbers pursued birds ’n’ booze, sported big hair and persisted in calling each other ‘youth’.
‘Dirty Alex’ as he was known, (a reference to his ‘charmingly chaotic personal lifestyle’, as one of his obituarists coyly put it) was a leading player in the British charge back into the Alps in the mid-late ’70s when the front-point revolution was exported to the continent. An élite group of Brits pushed the standards, particularly on ice, shocking the complacent French and Italians to get their act together. For a brief period they reigned supreme. Among McIntyre's finest Alpine moments was his one-day ascent of the Grand Jorasses’ Shroud and an audacious night time first ascent of the Central Couloir on the same mountain with Nick Colton.