| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | British |
| Born | 1942 |
| Died | (aged 36) K2, Pakistan |
| Alma mater | Magdalene, Cambridge |
| Occupation(s) | rock climber, mountaineer, systems analyst |
Nick Estcourt (1942 – 12 June 1978) was a British climber killed on K2 by an avalanche on the West Ridge route.
Estcourt spent his childhood on the south coast of England, in Eastbourne and he was educated at Eastbourne College. He first climbed in the European Alps with his father whilst still at school[1] and when in the UK he would cycle the 30 miles to climb at Harrison's Rocks.[2] He went to university to study engineering, in Cambridge. Whilst at Cambridge he joined the University Mountaineering Club, becoming its president for 1963-64.[1] He embarked on his first expedition outside Europe, on a University Mountaineering Club trip to the Stauning Alps of Arctic Greenland,[3] where he made the first ascent of a number of peaks up to 2,830 m (9,280 ft).[4][5]
He became a member of the Alpine Climbing Group in 1964 (a sub-group of the UK Alpine Club)[6] and in 1967 Estcourt, with Martin Boysen, were the UK's two ACG representatives at the Rassemblement International d'Alpinistes hosted by the French Ecole Nationale de Ski et d'Alpinism.[7][8]
Soon after leaving university, and after a brief period as a civil engineer, Estcourt started to work for Ferranti in Manchester as a systems analyst.[9]