Kev Reynolds (7 December 1943 – 10 December 2021) was an English outdoor writer, known for his guidebooks for climbing and walking in the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. They extend nearly from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum elevation of at the peak of Aneto. ...

, the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

, the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

and southern England.

Personal life

Reynolds was born on 7 December 1943 at

Ingatestone Ingatestone is a village and former civil parish in Essex, England, with a population of 5,409 inhabitants at the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 Census. Just north lies the village of Fryerning; the two now forming the parish of Ingatestone ...

in Essex. He worked in local government until 1967, when he married Min and they moved to

St. Moritz St. Moritz ( , , ; ; ; ; ) is a high Alpine resort town in the Engadine in Switzerland, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is Upper Engadine's major town and a municipality in the administrative region of Maloja in the Swiss ...

, where they worked in a hostel. They returned to England and became wardens of Crockham Hill YHA

youth hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory sleeping 4–20 people, with shared use of a lounge and usually a kitchen. Rooms can be private or shared - mixe ...

. They later lived in Edenbridge in Kent. His first trip abroad was to the

Atlas Mountains The Atlas Mountains are a mountain range in the Maghreb in North Africa. They separate the Sahara Desert from the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean; the name "Atlantic" is derived from the mountain range, which stretches around through M ...

of Morocco in 1965, travelling by truck with a group of friends. He visited the Pyrenees and the Alps while writing guidebooks to those areas in the 1970s and 1980s, and in 1989 made the first of almost 20 trips to Nepal and the adjacent areas of India. He declared that

Manaslu Manaslu (; , also known as Kutang) is the List of highest mountains#List, eighth-highest mountain in the world at above sea level. It is in the Mansiri Himal, part of the Nepalese Himalayas, in west-central Nepal. Manaslu means "mountain of the ...

in the Himalayas was "the most beautiful walk in the world". Kev Reynolds died on 10 December 2021, aged 78, having suffered from

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

, which restricted his life during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. He was survived by his wife Min, two children and two grandchildren.

Writing

Reynolds wrote more than 50 books on climbing and walking, on areas including the

, the

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

, and southern England. His first published book was ''Walks and Climbs in the Pyrenees'' in 1978: its seventh edition was published in 2019. His ''Trekking the Tour of Mont Blanc'' appeared in its 5th edition in 2020.

Cameron McNeish Cameron McNeish FRSGS is a Scottish wilderness hiker, backpacker and mountaineer who is an authority on outdoor pursuits. In this field he is best known as an author and broadcaster although he is also a magazine editor, lecturer and after dinn ...

described his ''Walking in the Alps'' as "probably the most important guide to walking abroad that has been published in Britain. It is simply stunning...". As well as numerous mountain guides he wrote guides to the

North Downs Way The North Downs Way National Trail is a long-distance path in South East England, opened in 1978. It runs from Farnham in Surrey to Dover in Kent, past Guildford, Dorking, Merstham, Otford and Rochester, through the Surrey Hills National Lan ...

South Downs Way The South Downs Way is a long distance footpath and bridleway running along the South Downs in southern England. It is one of 16 National Trails in England and Wales. The trail runs for from Winchester in Hampshire to Eastbourne in East Susse ...

and

Cotswold Way The Cotswold Way is a long-distance footpath, running along the Cotswold Edge escarpment of the Cotswold Hills in England. It was officially inaugurated as a National Trail on 24 May 2007 and several new rights of way have been created. Hi ...

. In 2013 he published ''A Walk in the Clouds'', a collection of 75 autobiographical stories, and in 2019 he edited ''Fifty Years of Adventure'', a celebration of 50 years of his main publisher the

Cicerone Press Cicerone Press is an English publisher, founded in 1969, specialising in guidebooks for walkers, climbers, trekkers and cyclists. The company's first publication was a climbing guide to the English Lake District, and over the past 50 years the ...

Recognition

Reynolds was one of the first honorary members of the British Association of European Mountain Leaders, later the British Association of International Mountain Leaders and also an honorary member of the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild, which in 2014 recognised him with its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Selected publications

* * ''First edition: 1978, '' * (Celebrating fifty years of the Cicerone Press) * * (75 autobiographical stories) *

References

External links

archived
11 December 2021 {{DEFAULTSORT:Reynolds, Kev 1943 births 2021 deaths English travel writers British mountain climbers People from Chelmsford People from Edenbridge, Kent