Pardoes Yossi Brain Page Edition of 4. January 2012
New photos of Yossi from Will Fox in the USA

A man and his mountain: Yossi Brain, Cotopaxi Summit Cone, 9. January 1998

Yossi Brain, our charming and professional guide in Ecuador and on Cotopaxi, died in an avalanche while climbing Cerro Presidente in the Cordillera Apolobamba, Bolivia on 25. September 1999, aged 32. Our sympathy goes to his family in England. Please e-mail if you knew Yossi, and either have or would like more details.

We are still getting e-mails about Yossi from people who have found our web pages, and the sentiment has always been the same : great guy, truly exceptional, and sadly missed; but died doing what he loved.

These are some photographs we took on that trip over Christmas 1997/98. Yossi was our leader on the treks, and personally guided us in a successful ascent of Cotopaxi (5,897m). Friends of Yossi are most welcome to download copies for their own use.

There are some photos from his Memorial Celebration in Walsall on 13. November here, and photos kindly sent by Eric Lawrie, below. Eric's own web site is now on-line at www.andeanimages.com

Alison Markwick has sent some further photos of Yossi, taken at a recent wedding in Bolivia.


Yossi Brain with Lucio, Sincholagua behind


A break on trek, Yossi at right


A side trip near Otovalo: Lloyd, Steve C, Paul, Steve P, Yossi


Judy, Yossi and a porter near Chimborazo


Tent life on the Paramo: Judy, Paul, Gwen, John and Yossi


Yossi fitting crampons, Cotopaxi


Yossi leading Judy and Steve along the crevasse, Cotopaxi
Photo © Ken Wade; our thanks to him, and to David S. Panofsky for sending it to us from Wisconsin, USA


Yossi crossing the crevasse by a metal bridge, Cotopaxi


Yossi and Judy, Cotopaxi Summit


Sue and Steve Carr with Oswaldo, Cotopaxi Summit


Judy and Yossi, Cotopaxi Summit


The ever-attentive Guide and his client: Yossi and Judy, descending Cotopaxi

New: These are some photos just received from Eric Lawrie, the Director of The British Council in La Paz, Bolivia. They show the scenery on El Presidente, on which Yossi and Dana Witzel, a Canadian climber, lost their lives


Clouds around Apolobamba


El Presidente (the tiny white mountain in the background)


Eric Lawrie writes: "The last photo of Yossi (at a food stop during the drive in to the Apolobamba on 24 September). The person in green is Dakin Cook, who survived the avalanche. The girl is Dana Witzel. Not a good shot, I'm afraid, but it was the last one taken of Yossi alive".


Sajama, 6,549 metres, the highest mountain in Bolivia and one which Yossi guided frequently.


The avalanche site

Many thanks to Eric Lawrie for scanning and sending these, and for his kind permission to publish them here.

New photos of Yossi from Will Fox in the USA, sent to us in January 2012. He writes:
"These are shots [scanned from slides] of Yossi, Karl Wolf and I on a trip of Ancohuma [in 2006]. It was a big 6 day expedition. None of us, including Yossi, had climbed the mountain. We made a dumb mistake and decided to descend a different route than we went up and it turned out to be far harder than we expected, and much harder than the way up. Our route map consisted of some ancient photo that Yossi had, and looking at the picture, it seemed that the descent route would be easier than the way up -- not true. Yossi was doing a range of climbs to have information for his guide book.

"Being the hardened mountaineer, Yossi actually slept out on the ice the night before the final ascent while Karl and I were in the tent. The picture "above the clouds" shows our high camp on Ancohuma. The man with the mask is Yossi on the summit."

There are some photos from his Memorial Celebration in Walsall on 13. November here.
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