See also “The Climbing Gene”
Bill Cheverst was a legendary figure, as these quotes indicate:
I met Terry after walking 26 miles in October 1964 over Holme Moss, Bleaklow and Kinder Scout with Bill Cheverst and his Birmingham mates. Terry and Linda Potter turned up after we had got back to the tents in Edale. The next day I climbed with Bill on Millstone Edge which was quite daunting.
One weekend Bill Cheverst decided to climb a very hard route on Eagle Crag in Borrowdale and kept being thwarted by the difficulty which was unusual for him as he was so good. Neither Terry nor I would have been able to follow him up it anyway but along came Melvin Batchford in beat up boots split down the back. He was persuaded to try the lead for this climb and to do so he borrowed Terry’s boots which didn’t fit. In typical Melvin fashion he set off up the climb and somehow finessed his way up to the top. Afterwards he confessed to us that he didn’t dare stop or he would have fallen off “shit or bust” as it was really fierce and the only way was up! He’s never forgotten it.
We sometimes went to Tremadoc in Wales where in those days you could drive your car right under the crag and climb out of the window onto a route! This was Bill Cheverst’s party piece. Climbing there he lost his glasses several times and once I remember us finding them swinging from a tree branch. Terry was forever retrieving Bill’s glasses and belongings from climbs.
Advice for climbers nowadays recommends that as this Alpine style ridge is complex it therefore requires full skills, careful planning and equipment for a mountaineering classic route. Climbers need a good crampon technique plus all the right winter equipment. “Crampon technique” see above! One article I read describes the climbers as “Weekend Snow Warriors”. Bill might have liked that.
Bill Cheverst eventually lost his life on the descent after climbing the Matterhorn in 1968.
a wayfarer’s notes 
Photo of Bill now included, with thanks to his son Keith
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