Andrew Richard Williams (1942–2026)

Abstract

Abstract

Andy Williams was Canada's premier high altitude mountain pilot and a Yukon legend.During his 40 years of flying he made countless glacier landings at 5330 m on Mt Logan and throughout the Icefield Ranges.Though fearless, he was no daredevil.When not flying he managed Kluane Lake Research Station near Silver Creek (Fig. 1).Andy was born 11 April 1942 in Bath, England, and began his schooling in Bristol.His young life was saddened by the early death of his mother and the family disruptions that resulted.He attended a succession of schools, ranging from a village school, where Welsh was spoken, to a boarding school in Bristol, where he enjoyed the rugby.Andy was especially close to his older sister, Terry Rees, whom he adored.Though not a star student, he was a voracious reader and very smart.Andy's life was probably not that envisaged by his teachers, but he did receive from them a foundation on which he later built the skills he needed.Soon after completing his formal education, Andy enlisted as a Royal Marines Commando and received training in wilderness survival, cliff assault, close combat, and much else.When he completed his military service, he was hired as a meteorologist with the Falkland Island Dependencies Survey, now British Antarctic Survey and passed the next two years at Halley Bay base on the Brunt Ice Shelf in the Weddell Sea of Antarctica.He and a teammate, each with a sledge and nine dogs, mapped the nunataks at each end of the Theron Mountains, some 250 miles inland.Surveying provides the perfect excuse to head for highpoints, and Andy managed to ascend eight unclimbed peaks while completing the survey.Upon his return to England, Andy accepted a job at McGill's Sub-Arctic Research Laboratory in Shefferville, Quebec, as manager, meteorological advisor, and seismologist.Before departing for Canada, he worked briefly as an instructor at the Outward Bound school in Aberdyfi, Wales, near his sister's farm.This decision would prove to be momentous.There, he met a young sociology student, Carole Behenna, who was at the school to study the social dynamics of one of the student groups.Andy and Carole grew close, but Canada called.Following three years in Shefferville, he moved west and, in 1971, became Senior Instructor at the Canadian Outward Bound Mountain School, in Keremeos, British Columbia.This was the first Outward Bound school in Canada and Andy was one of its first instructors.Throughout this time, Andy and Carole were conducting a transatlantic relationship while Carole finished university.Upon her graduation they married, and Carole joined Andy in Canada; their life adventure began.In 1973 Andy became the manager of the "Kluane Base," the Kluane Lake Research Station, Arctic Institute of North America (AINA).