Nicholas Clinch

The son of Virginia Lee Clinch and Nicholas Bayard Clinch Jr., a colonel in the U.S. Air Force,^[1] Nicholas "Nick" Clinch grew up in Dallas, Texas, and later attended the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell. He graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in political science in 1951, then obtained a degree from Stanford Law School.^[2] He followed his father into the Air Force, but due to his asthma and poor eyesight, was unable to qualify as a pilot. Instead, he worked as legal consul at the American bases in Iceland and Long Beach. He has one younger sister, also named Virginia Lee. He married Elizabeth ("Betsy") Wallace Campbell in 1964.^[1] They had two daughters.^[1]

While attending Stanford University, Clinch became a member of the Stanford Alpine Club and climbed extensively throughout the Sierra Nevada and Yosemite National Park.

He is the only American ever to have led a first ascent of a peak in excess of 8,000 metres (26,000 ft), which was achieved when his team conquered the world's 11th highest mountain, Hidden Peak (Gasherbrum I) in north-east Pakistan, in 1958.^[1][3] He was a member of the American-Pakistani team which made the first ascent of Masherbrum, the world's 22nd tallest peak, in 1960.^[4] He led the 10-man 1966–67 American Antarctic Mountaineering Expedition that made the first ascent of Mount Vinson, the summit of Antarctica, and other high mountains in the Sentinel Range.^[1]

He was president of the American Alpine Club from 1968 to 1970.^[5] He also made the first ascent of Tibet's Ulugh Muztagh, in 1985.^[6] In addition to Antarctica, Pakistan and Tibet, he made numerous ascents and expeditions in the United States, British Columbia, Peru and China.^[7]

Clinch was trustee and then executive director of the Sierra Club Foundation from 1970 to 1981^[8] and was an early member of the board of nature-focused consumers' co-operative Recreational Equipment, Inc.^[3] In the 1970s, he represented the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, California.^[1] He was a director of the Environmental Law Institute from 1980 to 1986.^[8]

In 1967, National Geographic awarded Clinch their La Gorce Medal for his Antarctic ascent.^[8] Clinch was made a Fellow of the Explorers Club in 1969 and was elected to Honorary Membership in The Alpine Club, London.^[3] For his contributions to mountaineering, the Sierra Club awarded Clinch its Francis P. Farquhar Mountaineering Award.^[8] In 2013, he was inducted into the Hall of Mountaineering Excellence by the American Mountaineering Museum.^[3] In February 2016, Clinch received the American Alpine Club's Gold Medal, only the fifth to be awarded in 114 years.^[9]

Clinch Peak, located at 1.6 miles (2.6 km) southeast of Antarctica's tallest peak, Mount Vinson, was named for Clinch in 2006.^[5]

• Clinch, Nicholas (1982). A Walk in the Sky: Climbing Hidden Peak. Mountaineers. ISBN 9780898860429.
• Clinch, Nicholas; Clinch, Elizabeth (2011). Through a Land of Extremes: The Littledales of Central Asia. The Mountaineers Books. ISBN 9781594855153.