William Robins, pioneering rock climber, dies at 45
In his lifetime, the climbing enthusiast pioneered many routes in Washington, and friends remember him for his willingness to teach the sport to anyone willing to learn.
Last week, Mr. Robins, 45, died in Bolivia while on a climb. He and his partner were found buried beneath an avalanche.
Mr. Robins leaves behind a community of climbers hailing him as one of the best.
Terry Martin of Ellensburg, a former girlfriend and fellow climber, went on hundreds of climbs with Mr. Robins. She said he was always calm and patient, especially when it wasn't easy to be.
On one occasion he coached Martin's 12-year-old daughter, Kelsey, up a rock after she had been hit by loose rock. He talked her up the rock and found the quickest way to rappel down and get to an emergency room.
"He was the best man in the world to be in a crisis with," Terry Martin said. "Whenever I would tell Bill I was in over my head, he'd tell me to calm down and talk me through it."
Mr. Robins was also a pioneer because he would often blaze his own trails. He loved to be the first climber on a rock.
"Nobody climbs like this man. He didn't like to climb things that other people climbed. He would work his way up, putting the pieces together," she said.
Amy Recker, who became a friend of Mr. Robins' after they met on Memorial Day weekend in 1997, remembered him for his generosity. Recker is the general manager of Vertical World, which operates local climbing gyms.
Once, she said, he volunteered to work with a group of women learning to climb, as a way of sharing his love of the sport.
Mr. Robins also taught Recker a thing or two about climbing. He taped his hands in a meticulous manner and taught Recker to do the same, a practice she follows to this day.
"I will climb in honor of Bill," Recker said. "If I quit climbing, I would be disgracing him. He would be laughing at me for thinking such thoughts.
"Bill had a very, very kind heart," she said. "To those that he was friends with, he was incredibly generous and would go out of his way to accommodate you. He was wonderful."
He was also strong-minded, she said. Mr. Robins believed that climbing should be done in a certain way. He was the subject of an article in The Seattle Times' Pacific Northwest magazine on June 23 that raised the possibility of him removing fixed climbing equipment from routes. He thought the use of fixed gear along climbing routes attracted people who were less devoted to the sport.
But Recker says Mr. Robins would not have removed fixed equipment.
"When he did something, he would be the first person that would admit he did something," Recker said. "He was a man of integrity."
Mr. Robins came to Washington during the late 1980s and began working at Pacific Northwest National Laboratories as a senior research chemist in 1988.
Mr. Robins was born in Kaysville, Utah, on July 3, 1957. He earned a scholarship to attend the University of Utah and graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemistry. Shortly afterward, he earned another degree in geology.
Mr. Robins climbed throughout North America. Recker said he went to visit his parents before setting off for Bolivia.
He was not married at the time of his death and is survived by his parents, John and Zelda Robins; his brother, T. Richard Robins; and his sister, Ruth Ann Eldridge.
His Web page is devoted to various routes and news of rock climbing. In a disclaimer, he stated that avid rock climbers would likely die on a climb.
"He was a climber," Martin said. "It was his life, and he accepted those odds."
The funeral is scheduled in Utah tomorrow.
Sheila Lalwani: 206-464-2194 or slalwani@seattletimes.com.