A Man for All Mountains

Sir John Laurence 'Jack' Longland (1905-1993) was one of the defining figures of British mountaineering and outdoor education in the twentieth century - a man whose influence reached from the highest mountains of the world to the classrooms, airwaves and policy rooms of post-war Britain.

As a young climber, Jack Longland stood at the forefront of adventure. His eponymous climb on Clogwyn Du'r Arddu in North Wales in 1928 - the first on the crag's imposing West Buttress - confirmed his standing among Britain's leading rock climbers, while his 1930 ascent of Javelin Blade (E1) in Cwm Idwal was ahead of its time in terms of difficulty and boldness. Further from home, he was a member of the 1933 Everest expedition, gaining first-hand experience of the world's highest mountain at a formative moment in Himalayan exploration; after helping to establish camp 6, he famously led his team of Sherpas down to the safety of camp 5 in a storm. His participation in the 1935 Greenland expedition further demonstrated a lifelong appetite for remote and demanding terrain.

Yet Longland's greatest legacy is how he connected mountaineering with public service. Appointed director of education for Dorset during the Second World War, and later for Derbyshire from 1949 to 1970, he became a visionary advocate for outdoor learning. In 1950 he founded White Hall, the first local authority outdoor pursuits centre in Britain, establishing a model that transformed access to the outdoors for generations of young people. He was knighted on his retirement in 1970.

A respected leader within the climbing world, Longland served as chairman of the Mountain Leadership Training Board and of Plas y Brenin between 1964 and 1980, and as president of the Alpine Club from 1974 to 1976. His authority was matched by a gift for communication: he was a familiar and much-loved voice on BBC Radio, regularly contributing to Any Questions?, as well as chairing Country Questions in the 1940s and 1950s, and My Word! for twenty years from 1957.

In A Man for All Mountains, the long-awaited biography of Jack Longland, Mark Lambert profiles a climber, educator and broadcaster united by a single belief: that mountains, landscapes and ideas are at their best when shared.