NORTHERN Tasmania's elite, international rock climber Bob McMahon has died suddenly at his Exeter home.
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He was in his early 60s.
Mr McMahon's death on Wednesday night will shock not only rock climbing and extreme sport colleagues around the world but also those in the environmental movement in which he was heavily involved in his own state.
He was a founding member of the Northern community lobby group Tasmanians Against the Pulp Mill in 2005.
For a time he was the public face of Northern Tasmanian opposition to failed timber company Gunns Ltd's proposed $3 billion pulp mill.
After the former art teacher abandoned full-time classroom teaching in the mid-1980s, he developed his own business based around his elite rock climbing skills.
The jobs he was hired to do took him around the world, including to sheer rock faces in South America and ice plateaus in Finland.
His first climb was while he was still a student teacher in 1972.
He went on to co-author and individually produce a range of guide books from his experiences.
Mr McMahon named most of the more than 2000 rocks to be climbed in and around Launceston's Cataract Gorge.
For a number of years he designed the rope side of the state's annual Mark Webber Challenge.
Mr McMahon is understood to have died in his sleep on Wednesday night.
His friend of 28 years and West Tamar historian Peter Henning said yesterday that he would be missed for a number of reasons.
``He was a crucial factor in the public profile of the environmental movement,'' Mr Henning said.
``He had tremendous moral and physical courage whether in rock climbing or other activities.
``He was a man of gregarious character who loved being with people.''
Mr Henning said that Mr McMahon would also be missed for his leadership.
``His leadership was one of inclusion, which allowed people to do what they wanted to do.''
Mr McMahon was born at Stanley, on the North-West Coast, one of seven surviving sons raised by their mother Sheila - mostly on her own, according to Mr McMahon in an interview in 2007.
They later lived in Launceston and George Town.
He is survived by his wife, Susie, their two children and grandchildren.
