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1949

John Charles Pratt was born on January 25, 1949 in Birmingham, West Midlands, England. He was educated at one of the prestigious King Edward VI Grammar Schools in Birmingham and continued on to the University of Sheffield where he received his Batchelor of Science in 1970. He then went to the University of London for his Ph.D., receiving his degree in 1973. After seeing a poster about the University of British Columbia and talking with a colleague, John decided to undertake his Postdoctoral research first at UBC (Department of Chemistry, November 1973 to May 1976,) then back to the University of Cambridge (Department of Theoretical Chemistry, May 1976 to Fall 1977) and finally at the University of Victoria (Department of Physics, Fall 1978 to 1987.) His research interests were in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance in solids. Other areas of interest are in General Relativity and the civil and military applications of nuclear energy. John Pratt has worked as an Instructor of Physics at Camosun College in Victoria, British Columbia since 1987.

As a young boy growing up in England, John could name many of the great mountains of the world and locate them on a map. Although at the time he was not interested in climbing, this knowledge came from the 'Great Mountains of the World' cards he collected in packages of PG Tip's Tea. At the age of fourteen John made a trip to Switzerland with his class. From Oostende they took the overnight train to Lugano but in the morning when he woke up, the train had stopped at a pass in the mountains and John saw for the first time real, snow-capped mountains. Then, when he was nineteen John again returned to Switzerland but this time hiked up his first mountain, the Stockhorn in the Bernese Oberland. Those cards from PG Tips and the views of the Swiss Alps were to have an effect on John that at the time he didn't realize, although by then he knew mountains were special.

John's first real climbing trip into the mountains was with the North Shore Hikers out of Vancouver in 1975 while at UBC. It was a trip to The Golden Ears and as John recalls the story the party was in the mist for all but the last one hundred feet when they broke above the clouds. In the distance towering above the clouds were two snow covered peaks spiking up into the blue sky. After asking what they were he was told Mount Judge Howay and Mount Robie Reid, both peaks that he has since climbed and has wonderful memories of. While he was completing his postdoctoral at UVIC in 1978 he met Sandy Briggs, a sessional instructor, and began doing trips into the mountains on Vancouver Island with him and other members of the Vancouver Island section of the Alpine Club of Canada. Eventually he joined the club in 1982 and became chairman for one year in 1984. His climbing career has included ascents of Denali (Alaska) in 1979, Aconcagua (Argentina) in 1981, Mount Kilimanjaro (Tanzania) in 2002 and an attempt on Pumori (Nepal) in 2004. Although he has climbed in the Canadian Rockies, the majority of his climbs have been in the Northern Cascades of Washington State, the Coastal Mountains of British Columbia and on Vancouver Island with over two hundred ascents to his credit.

In 1990 John was the sixth person to finish his Island Qualifiers or IQ. These are nine peaks on Vancouver Island that have to be climbed to obtain the right to brag about one's IQ. But John is also a glutton for punishment and in many of his climbing reports he talks about his heavy pack and the hot sun: "As we sweated up the logging road, kilometre and kilometre of it, in the hot sunshine, with heavy packs, I thought about all the character this must be building and reminding myself that if it hurts, it must be good." And on another trip: "We lugged our heavy loads in the hot afternoon sun, grateful for whatever clouds chanced to cross its blazing disc." And again: "…and the sun blazed forth from a clear, blue sky. After only 100 metres walk up the track, the packs already seemed far too heavy and it promised to be a hot afternoon's work." One is very quickly reminded of the old English saying - Mad dogs and Englishman go out in the midday sun! But for his entire rhetoric one just has to look at John's outstanding climbing resume and realized that it is just lip-sync. John thrives on verbal and written rhetoric and when he and Sandy Briggs are together on a climb (or at the bar) their play on words is priceless. A classic example of this is in his report of an ascent of Mount Spooner. After reading this one could see how John could have been one of the script writers for Monty Python.

If there was one mountain range that John continues to return too it is the Tantalus Range near Squamish where he has made about eight trips with ascents of Mount Pelion, Alpha, Niobe, Pelops, Iota, Omega, Serratus, Dione, Tantalus and Ionia to name just a few. It is the relatively easy access and the quality rock that he finds such a pleasure to climb on. John is a keen runner and has completed the Royal Victoria Marathon twice and the Gold River to Tahsis Great Walk a number of times.

John has a daughter, Miranda, from his first marriage and a son, Simon, with his second wife Sarah Reznikoff. With a young family, finding the time to be in the mountains is currently a little challenging, but John is not ready to hang his boots up yet. When the opportunity presents itself again John will be out there continuing where he left off and as he said: "That won't be on the easy hills looking at flowers but on the more challenging mountains where my passion and enthusiasm abounds."

Mount Spooner

Spoonerism (n) Accidental transportation of initial letters, etc, of two or more words.

- Concise Oxford Dictionary.

Mount Spooner 9340ft/2847m. Highest of the peaks S of Bogus Mountain and an impressive sight from the Malaprop R. Valley.

- Guide to Hiking and Climbing in Southwestern BC.

Mount Spooner is named after an English clergyman, the Reverend W.A. Spooner (d. 1930) of New College, Oxford. This delightful man of the cloth is reputed to have told his congregation that "the Lord is a shoving leopard" and to have upbraided a lazy undergraduate with the words: "Sir, you have tasted an entire worm and have hissed all my mystery lectures!" In this spirit, we felt that Mount Spooner was a fine choice for the first sip of this treason.

We did not get a very early start, for the previous night, Sandy had been laying in a state in his laboratory; I had been lurking in wait myself. Nonetheless, we stung our fluff into Sandy's old van; he drove, I had a fried-up runt and Dave had a bit in the sack with Claire. We arrived at the trailhead in the dark but, as these were nine starry fights we decided not to erect the tent but to merely stamp out under the cars. The night was one of dozy, cream-filled sleep and we began in earnest next morning after meeting a tasty eel.

We had been fairly concerned about beating mares on the trail, but saw none; however, to deny we were concerned would be pimple surgery. Unhappily, the weather began to change: it was soon roaring with pain and the trail degenerated into bush. It would be nice to have the trail built all the way through to the alpine but these days it is impossible to wet the necessary Gurkhas. It seemed as if our hopes had been dealt a blushing crow, but we had not intention of behaving like boiled sprats on this account, but pressed on, at one point crossing a roaring creek on a couple of leatherbeaten wogs. Higher up, we passed into a limestone area with some interesting caverns, but as serious climbers, we had not time for this shaving kit and continued on up. I was concerned about losing our way in the dense undergrowth and so Sandy quite tightly raped it, although to be here in the first place, I figured, we must be nightly sluts!

It had been a sad bummer and true to form it actually began to snow - we had clearly hit the bleeding edge of a violent lizard, but on reaching the alpine, the late afternoon sun appeared and with the promise of better weather on the morrow we speared four clots for a bivouac. Our gear was somewhat damp, so I put the pope on the rack and we passed the remained of the daylight pleasantly, banging our hags in the warm sunshine. We had a warm night, all having brought large sweaters with shaggy boulders.

The next morning we had to consult my topo, for unfortunately, in his haste to pack, Sandy had munched his crap beyond recognition. However, the clouds continued to clear, blots of spew appeared in the sky and from thereon, the ascent went as smoothly as a well boiled icicle. Soon, we came to the glacier where we stopped to cry on our tampons. We were making fast progress and had toads of lime which was good, for before us rose the crux, 150m or so of rice-covered ox. It had by now become quite hot and our heavy perspiration told us to keep drinking and guard against any flop in our intake of druids. I felt so thirsty, I could drink an entire dragonfly! It was so hot by now that I decided to share my warts. The others felt as though they could boff three or four queers, too, and I had to agree, we had all burned our ears!

We climbed carefully, nipping several sluts in the various cracks and it soon became evident that we were going to suck off this knocker. Sandy had bumped his elbow down in the forest, but courageously led the pitch climbing in such a manner as to savour his forearm. At the summit we whistled and whooped and generally behaved like lazy krauts; Claire even sang a song, which I could not understand, however, as my wrench is a little freak.

And there my account ends. I had intended to sling a few brides here tonight, but I hope this conveys to you the excitement of a fine climb which, because of its strenuousness, you should do before there are too many stray Greeks running through your hair. May I add that for those of you with extensive pastes in mountaineering it provides a fine warm-up for the pig beaks of the Himalaya.

Sources:
Pratt, John. Personal communication. 2007 and 2008.

Macdonald, Rob. "Victoria Peak South Face." Island Bushwhacker. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section newsletter. (December 1982) Vol. 10:3/4. p. 2 & 6.

Eppler, Rick. "Mt. Rexford." Island Bushwhacker. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section newsletter. (Autumn 1984) Vol. 12:3. p. 1-2.

Macdonald, Rob. "Baby Munday." Island Bushwhacker. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section newsletter. (Autumn 1985) Vol. 13:3. p. 3.

Eppler, Rick. "Mt. Challenger." Island Bushwhacker. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section newsletter. (Autumn 1985) Vol. 13:3. p. 5-6.

Pratt, John. "The Old Settler." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 1992. p. 14-16.

Manke, Dennis. "Haihte Range (Peak 5600-South Face.)" Island Bushwhacker Annual . The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 1992. p. 23-25.

Pratt, John. "Garibaldi Lake Circumnavigation." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 1992. p. 28.

Nelson, Trevor. "The Inaccessible Mt. Cobb and Peak 6390." Island Bushwhacker Annual . The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 1992. p. 31.

Pratt, John. "Alpha East Ridge." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 1992. p. 31-32.

Newman, Don. "Rainbow Mountain." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 1993. p. 7-8.

Muir, Russ. "Mount Brunswick." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 1993. p. 8-9.

Pratt, John. "Redwall N.W. Ridge: King of the McKenzie Lines." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. Victoria, B.C. 1993. p. 13-15.

Pratt, John. "Mount Pelion, Northern Tantalus Range." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 1993. p. 31-32.

Pratt, John. "Mount Stuart, North Ridge." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 1993. p. 30-31.

Davis, Martin. "Elkhorn in a Day (Almost)." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 1993. p. 44.

Pratt, John. "Wedge Mountain, North Arete." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 1994. p. 14-15.

Pratt, John. "The Lion in Spring." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 1994. p. 17-18.

Smythe, Gerta. "My First Tantalus Trip." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 1994. p. 34-35.

Brown, Ian. "Crown Mountain." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 1994. p. 39.

Goodman, Doug. "Triple Peak." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 1995. p. 26.

Montoya-Pelaez, Pedro. "Tantalus." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 1995. p. 37.

Pratt, John. "The Approach and Ascent of Mt. Tom Taylor …." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 1996. p. 24.

Pratt, John. "Mt. Jimmy-Jimmy and Mt. Phillips." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 2000. p. 33-34.

Pratt, John. "Mt. Constance." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 2000. p. 40.

Pratt, John. "Mt. Shasta - Solo 2." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 2000. p. 46-47.

Pratt, John. "Triple Peak." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 2001. p. 38-39.

Pratt, John. "Mount Breakenridge." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 2001. p. 43-44.

Pratt, John. "Crossover Peak." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 2001. p. 47-48.

Pratt, John. "Queen Peak." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 2002. p. 27-28.

Pratt, John. "The Tramp and the Lady." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 2002. p. 40-41.

Pratt, John. "Kilimanjaro." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 2002. p. 57-59.

Pratt, John. "Edge Mtn, Golden Ears." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 2003. p. 46-47.

Pratt, John. "Blanshard's Needle." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 2003. p. 53-54.

Pratt, John. "Pumori South Ridge." Island Bushwhacker Annual. The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island section. 2004. p. 67-69.

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