Bill Forrest, climber, mountaineer and founder of Forrest Mountaineering Ltd, collapsed and died while snowshoeing in Colorado. He was 73.

Although a popular and well-respected climber and pioneer in America, he may be more familiar to an older generation of UK alpinists due to his ice tools, which were fashionable in the early 1980s.

He later developed the first tools with interchangeable picks, and was responsible for one of the first commercially-available, two-piece harnesses (with leg loops). He is also generally credited with inventing copperheads.

Other notable developments were durable haul bags, single point suspension hammocks and, in recent times, advanced snowshoes.

One innovation that was perhaps less successful was the cammable nut. However, in the late 1960s Forrest climbed regularly with Ray Jardine, and a few years later Jardine is reported to have been living at Forrest's house during the time he was developing the concept of Friends. It seems likely Forrest would have played some part in this historic innovation.

Forrest began climbing while in the Army, improving his skills while based in Germany. He was a pioneer, making numerous significant first ascents in Colorado, and on the desert towers of Utah.

He is quoted as saying, " I owned one guidebook, but didn't like reading it"

In 1970 he made the first (roped) solo ascent of the Diamond on Long's Peak, shortly after the National Park Service declared that solo climbing was now "legal".

Two years later, together with Kris Walker, he made the first ascent of the notorious Painted Wall in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, after some of the best climbers of the day, including Layton Kor, had failed.

The pair spent nine days on the ascent, negotiating the loose rock for which the wall is well-known, and only managed to exit after Forrest made a pendulum from a skyhook to reach a nearby crack system. No bolts were placed and their achievement is considered one of the greatest in the history of Colorado climbing.

Forrest completed all 54 of Colorado's 14,000' peaks, but his most notable mountaineering achievement took place in 1979, when he accompanied Ron Kauk, John Roskelly and Kim Schmitz to Pakistan.

These four made the first ascent of the spectacular 6,109m Uli Biaho Tower, west across the glacier from the Trango Towers.

This fantastic granite monolith was nearly climbed in 1974 by a strong team of French alpinists, including Pierre Béghin and Jean Frehel. They were defeated by storm around 100m from the top of the northwest pillar.

Roskelly not only wanted to climb the peak, but also wanted to do it by a major challenge. So, the Americans chose the front face of the tower, the imposing 1,100m east wall, accessed by a long and objectively dangerous couloir.

After getting their gear established below the face, the team made a 10-day capsule style ascent with portaledges, often having to negotiate wet and icy cracks.

Climbing in big boots they completed the ascent, something of a milestone in Karakoram big wall climbing, at VI 5.8 A4 (34 pitches).

In 1993 Forrest went to Everest, where he came down with a very severe case of amoebic dysentery. It is not completely rare for climbers in the Himalaya to contract diseases from which they either take many years to, or never fully, recover. Forrest was one of these, and after this incident gave up climbing.

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