Al Rouse was barn in Wallasey, Merseyside. He was educated at Birkenhead school where he won a scholarship. He then won a place at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He graduated with a degree (just!) in Mathematics. Al was President of the C.U.M.C. in 1972-73. On leaving Cambridge he had several teaching jobs before becoming a "professional mountaineer", lecturing, writing and acting as an adviser to the outdoor equipment trade.
Al Rouse began climbing in 1968 at the age of 16. He started locally at The Breck and Helsby. He made many trips to North Wales and lead Vector and Cemetary Gates at an early age. He joined his local mountaineering club, Gwydyr M.C. In 1969 he led many classic extremes in N. Wales and made his first trip to the Alps. The following year he continued to climb outstandingly at home and returned to the Alps to climb the N. Ridge of Peigne and the W. Face of The Blatiere. He began in Cambridge in the October and still managed to devote much of his time to climbing and made several first ascents. Again he had a very successful Alpine season in 1971 and continued with serious Scottish winter climbing, often in the company of Mick Geddes on epic hitching weekends. He made the second ascent of Orion Face Direct on the Ben and the first of South Pillar on Creag Meagaidh. Always one for a joke , he managed to get the C.U.M.C. banned from the C.I.C. hut and lock his fellow club members out of the hut under the most unfortunate (nude!) circumstances. His climbing was an inspiration to the mountaineering club during the three years he was at Cambridge.
In the summer of 1972 he visited the Alps and Yosemite with Rab Carrington and the next year the two went to Patagonia. In 1977 he made a trip to S. America, with Carrington and others. Here he climbed many new routes and some small unclimbed summits. The following year he made his first visit to the Himalayas, where he was part of an Alpine-style ascent of Jannu (25,294 ft). In 1979 he went to the Cordillera Huayuash, Peru and later to Nepal, where he attempted a new line on the lower summit of Kantega.
Al joined Chris Bonnington on a reconnaissance trip to china to prospect Mount Kongur and made the first ascent of Sarakyaguq (6,200m). In the winter of 1980/81 he led a British expedition to attempt Everest by the West ridge via Lho La, without using oxygen or Sherpas in very serious weather. The trip was not a success, but in the summer he joined Bonnington, Tasker, and Boardman to make a successful first ascent of Mt. Kongur. He visited Pakistan in 1982 and the next year he went to the Karakorum with the final intention of climbing K2. The mountain was attempted by a new line up the South Ridge Direct. He still managed to climb in Britain as often as he could, putting new routes up at grades up to E5. He went back to Pakistan to climb Karum Koh (7,350m), but the trip failed, due in part to bad conditions. In 1985 he was elected Vice-President of the B.M.C. In 1986 as joint leader of a British Team he made an unsuccessful attempt at the first ascent of the N.W. Ridge of K2. Al Rouse remained and attempted the Abruzzi Spur in the company of 4 Austrians, a Polish girl and Julie Tullis. He made the summit of K2 on August 4 and became the first Briton to do so. He was last seen alive on August 10 at Camp IV (approx. 8,000m) and is presumed to have perished there.
Rosie Stather
It's hard to give a fitting tribute to Al Rouse in words, a man who loved climbing from Stanage to Everest. Read his essay in Extreme Rock for a taste of the seventies and Al's energy.
He must have had a lot more then those 15 minutes on the thin red line.