The story behind Aspire
In 1963 a group of young adventurers conquered twenty-eight virgin peaks in Greenland. They were led by brilliant Cambridge University and Commonwealth scholar Colin F Knox. Colin was only twenty-five when he led the group in their six weeks in Greenland. Incredibly, he was the oldest.
Colin went on to become an accomplished climber, summiting all the major peaks in New Zealand and Europe.
From Mount Cook to Mont Blanc, Colin took on the challenges with the same unquenchable thirst that he studied theoretical physics, at the prestigious Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University.
In 1964 he was tragically killed in an Alpine accident at Chamonix, France. After this sad event, a mountain previously known as Grandes Jorrasses in East Greenland, for its similarity to its parent in Chamonix, was renamed C F Knox Tinde, in Colin’s memory.
In 1965 Colin’s brother John and wife Helen, had a son they named Colin Richard Knox in his memory. In 2011, John joined his brother at peace, after an outstanding career in engineering and classical music that led to national and international recognition and a QSM.
Today, Colin, Aspire’s Managing Director, like his renowned uncle and father, has also developed a passion for the mountains and intellectual pursuits. In 1996 he founded Aspire.
‘Aspire is all about what the Knox brothers stood for: taking challenges both physical and intellectual.
This website and Aspire are dedicated to that spirit and to the uncle I never met but have come to know, and the father I loved, knew intimately and miss dearly’ – Colin R. Knox.
Colin and – of late – his colleagues are carrying on the mountain tradition and the images you see around this site range from Greenland to the mighty Himalaya. These pictures are not stock shots.
