A Ski Legend Remembered
25th June 2026 | James Cove, PlanetSKI
Last modified on June 28th, 2026
A service of Thanksgiving and Celebration of Life has been held in London for the legendary ski & travel writer Araminta Jane Braham. Most knew her as Minty Clinch. UPDATED
The great and the not so good of the UK snowsport industry gathered to pay their respects and celebrate the life of Minty.
Around 100 of us packed the pews of Chelsea Old Church in Cheyne Walk, SW3.
Celebrating the life of Minty Clinch at Chelsea Old Church, Wednesday 24th June 2026. Image © PlanetSKI.
Minty died aged 83 on 4th November last year.
Minty Clinch enjoying life. Image © Minty Clinch.
Minty wrote regularly about skiing for many of the national newspapers – The Sunday Times, The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, The Financial Times, plus many other specialist publications.
She was, quite simply, a force of nature and we will not see her like again.
PlanetSKI posted an obituary of Minty’s remarkable life at the time of her passing:
The service of Thanksgiving and Celebration was traditional at times:
- Jerusalem,
- He Who Would Valiant Be
- The Lord’s Prayer
It concluded with ‘Sweet Caroline’ sung by the congregation with utter gusto.
Then, as we filed out, a recording of ‘I’m Gonna be a County Girl Again’ by Buffy Sainte-Marie filled the church.
It was a memorial service like no other and a fitting tribute to her remarkable life.
Tributes were paid from her life-long friend, Julian Platt, and her step-daughter, Felicity Shankar.
Julian told us of her distinct personality and her ‘beady sideways look’.
He recounted how Minty was his oldest friend as they had shared a pram together as babies in the early 1940s during the war as the German bombs fell.
Felicity recalled a moment in Japan when the bar of their hotel closed early, but the gift shop remained open so they bought all the small tourist bottles of saki from the shop and then polished them off long into the night.
“Minty could always be relied upon to provide a slightly dangerous adventure,” said Felicity.
Minty Clinch, 2nd August 1942 – 4th November 2025. Image © Family photo.
Her friends in the ski industry recalled their ‘Memories of Minty’.
Leslie Woit travelled from Banff in Canada.
Celebrating the life of Minty Clinch at Chelsea Old Church, Wednesday 24th June 2026. Image © PlanetSKI.
“Minty was magically different, and made a difference to my life and others.”
Leslie recalled her legendary wit and many diners with plenty of red wine and sharp observations.
She described how Minty was in perpetual motion with riding, skiing, painting, croquet and then her ability for renewal and re-invention.
“It was a privilege to share so many wonderful adventures with her.”
Peter Hardy came up from his home in the west country.
Celebrating the life of Minty Clinch at Chelsea Old Church, Wednesday 24th June 2026. Image © PlanetSKI.
“She was forthright, determined, amusing, spiky, contrary, fearless, indefatigable, generous, kind, fun-loving,irreverent, and on occasions stubborn and completely bloody-minded.
“But she didn’t suffer fools or officialdom with all rules made to be tested, unravelled strand by strand and then if necessary broken.
He recalled how Minty was always ‘taking part in life’.
“Her tip for adventure travel? ‘DON’T WORRY’ – if you’re in a situation where it’s not working out, just wait and see if it does.”
Neil English made the journey from his home in the ski resort of Villars in Switzerland.
Celebrating the life of Minty Clinch at Chelsea Old Church, Wednesday 24th June 2026. Image © PlanetSKI.
“We all know our dear Araminta was not one to suffer fools – so I remain eternally grateful that with me she made such a long-term exception.”
“Minty loved her sport, to do it but also spectate.
“She was a big fan of Test cricket, we went to Roland Garros tennis, saw many rugby victories at Twickenham, sadly including a best forgotten match when England were knocked out our own World Cup.
“Minty even stooped to watching a few Chelsea matches with me.”
“It would be wrong to say she lived a full life, she lived multiple full lives.”
The full texts of the ‘Memories of Minty ‘from Leslie,Peter and Neil can be found at the end of this article.
Other dear friends of Minty were unable to attend, but sent their memories.
“Farewell Minty,” said Frank Baldwin.
Minty with another legendary ski writer, Frank Baldwin.
The choir of Chelsea Old Church provided a fitting accompaniment to the words of her friends.
Celebrating the life of Minty Clinch at Chelsea Old Church, Wednesday 24th June 2026. Image © PlanetSKI.
Minty Clinch, 2nd August 1942 – 4th November 2025. Image © Family photo.
Minty Clinch, 2nd August 1942 – 4th November 2025. Image © Family photo.
After the service we headed outside to the sweltering June heat.
Celebrating the life of Minty Clinch at Chelsea Old Church, Wednesday 24th June 2026. Image © PlanetSKI.
Celebrating the life of Minty Clinch at Chelsea Old Church, Wednesday 24th June 2026. Image © PlanetSKI.
Celebrating the life of Minty Clinch at Chelsea Old Church, Wednesday 24th June 2026. Image © PlanetSKI.
Celebrating the life of Minty Clinch at Chelsea Old Church, Wednesday 24th June 2026. Image © PlanetSKI.
Celebrating the life of Minty Clinch at Chelsea Old Church, Wednesday 24th June 2026. Image © PlanetSKI.
Celebrating the life of Minty Clinch at Chelsea Old Church, Wednesday 24th June 2026. Image © PlanetSKI.
A memory with Minty in an igloo in Switzerland eating cheese fondue in somewhat colder times flashed into my mind.
James and Minty enduring another cheese fondue. Image © PlanetSKI.
I recalled the last time we saw each other, just over the river in Vauxhall, for dinner a couple of years back.
A select UK ski industry gathering. Image© PlanetSKI.
And with that we headed off to the nearby Chelsea Arts Club for an afternoon of drink, food, laughter and memories.
Celebrating the life of Minty Clinch at the Chelsea Arts Club, Wednesday 24th June 2026. Image © Lynsey Devon.
Much hot air was talked.
No phones or cameras are allowed to be used in the Chelsea Arts Club so I took no images of the celebrations that went on inside long into the afternoon.
Minty, never one for rules, would have liked that one regulation.
“James you need to put your phone away and close that laptop of yours as though you are keeping PlanetSKI readers informed of whatever it is you inform them about, you are missing so much,” she once said to me on a ski trip in Adelboden in the Swiss Alps.
Minty never missed a thing, and we continue to miss her.
Celebrating the life of Minty Clinch at Chelsea Old Church, Wednesday 24th June 2026. Image © PlanetSKI.
Minty Clinch enjoying life. Image © Minty Clinch.
The full texts of the Memories of Minty’ from Leslie, Peter and Neil.
Leslie Woit:
Leslie Woit, Celebrating the life of Minty Clinch at Chelsea Old Church, Wednesday 24th June 2026. Image © PlanetSKI.
I’d like to read for us a special version of Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken.
Two pistes diverged on a snowy mountain,
And sorry she could not ski down both
She diverted, glad, to one named “Champagne Fountain”,
And chose, as always, the more difficult junction
That being ever her oath.
Then thought the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was powder, and she loved a dare
Though, as for that, the passing there
Had hoped to track them about the same.
And both that morning equally lay on
trails where no ski had trodden a track.
Oh, she kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
She doubted if she should ever come back.
Minty shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two pistes diverged on a mountain, and she –
She took the one less travelled by.
And that has made all the difference.
Minty was magnificently different.
And Minty made all the difference to me.
Fierce.
Fearless.
Funny as hell.
How many times have we all been in a crowded room and heard it?
Minty’s here.
Her wit, legendary. Her energies and resilience, Herculean. With her boundless generosity, Minty transformed the ordinary.
Minty seemed to live in a constant state of renewal and reinvention.
Throwing parties, catching planes, changing careers, crossing continents.
Riding, skiing, painting, dog parenting. Never missing an episode of The Archers…
She was a human karmic wheel in perpetual motion.
Minty was the difference between a humdrum dinner with unsuspecting hosts and an evening of sparks and fireworks, as she held court – red wine and sharp observations aplenty.
In Iran, while skiing glorious spring powder in Shemshak, she was the difference between jail for not covering our heads – or evading the morality police in characteristic Minty fashion: pointing her skis downhill and disappearing at full speed.
Minty one, Revolutionary Guard nil.
Deep in the Okavango Delta, Minty was the difference between a good sleep and a proper mauling.
Warned that a leopard was prowling the campsite at nights, Minty nonetheless declared the covered bed on top of our Defender “much too small for two ladies”.
Instead she erected her own puptent, enjoyed a stiff G+T or two, and retired to her own patch of ground.
The moon was high when I clocked the leopard loping through our site – but even his deep guttural sawing couldn’t compete with Minty’s rousing nocturnal soundtrack.
That kitty was never coming back.
The last time we spoke, Minty talked about the people she loved and who loved her.
She talked principles, honour, and an unwavering wish to do right by those she cared for.
It was a privilege to share so many wonderful adventures – and far too few precious miles – with Minty, on her road less travelled.
So, just as I can hear her saying…. ‘Bonne continuation’ my love.
Peter Hardy:
Peter Hardy, Celebrating the life of Minty Clinch at Chelsea Old Church, Wednesday 24th June 2026. Image © PlanetSKI.
As a hugely successfully travel writer she wandered extensively through the Rocky Mountains across Japan and Persia and to distant corners of just about every continent. Once, she even rode a horse for 800 miles alone across Colorado.
Sounds familiar?
No, that’s not Minty, but Nineteenth Century British writer, Isabella Bird.
She died 38 years before Minty was born.
To me Minty is a glorious throwback to that elite group of female wordsmiths who in Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian times delighted their home audiences with their daring exploits across the globe.
The roll of honour includes such formidable figures as Lady Hester Stanhope, Mary Kingsley and Freya Stark.
On horseback, on skis, dog-sleds, tennis courts, croquet lawns, golf courses, Minty was up for it all.
Her exploits were legion.
Skiing in Iran riding with gauchos in Argentina, diving with sharks in the Caribbean, mountain biking in Austria, fly-fishing in the Rockies, fun-running in North Korea and playing golf in over 50 countries including Pakistan and Peru.
“I have,” she told our podcast, “possibly the least talent for golf of almost anybody I’ve ever met.”
Self-deprecation was a club she wielded to devastating effect.
Chalet Elephant Blanc in Val d’Isère was run at the time by The Ski Company, the world’s first uber-luxury chalet operator.
On the opening night Minty looked amused as she eyed the ranks of well-spoken and immaculately turned out wait-staff as they lined up behind our chairs around the dining room table.
“Goodness,” she proclaimed loudly.
“‘Being served dinner by our social superiors is a new experience.”
Her adventures were legion and I ‘m fortunate to have shared a few of them.
Minty was the kind of irrepressible person who you would fully expect to emerge alive and well on a camel from The Empty Quarter after three months alone in the desert with a handful of dates, and the occasional sheep’s eye for sustenance.
Like her historical peers her wit was honed as sharp as a cut-throat razor.
She was forthright, determined, amusing, spiky, contrary, fearless, indefatigable, generous, kind, fun-loving, irreverent and on occasions stubborn and completely bloody-minded.
She didn’t suffer fools or officialdom gladly or otherwise.
For posterity, it should be noted that she despised cheese fondue and loathed long traverses on skis.
All rules were made to be tested, unravelled strand by strand and then if necessary broken.
When a magistrate seized her driving licence after an unfortunate altercation with the police in Battersea, she promptly flew 10,000 miles to the Cook Islands in the Pacific and got another one.
As backup against its dubious validity in Europe she then popped over to America, took a test and acquired a second one.
Our lives collided, quite literally, in the early 1980s on a mountainside in Austria on the first day of a ski trip.
No blame was attached to either party.
No damage was done, but over the next forty years I was irregularly reminded of this incident.
Minty never forgot the smallest detail of any misbehaviour or what anyone ever said or did or opinion expressed.
Her hearing remained bat-like to the end.
It was all stored away in her elephantine memory, marked ‘For Possible Future Use’.
Like a thief in the night it was then destined to reappear if not in her ski copy then in a subsequent late-night conversation when wine had been taken.
After that initial meeting Felice and I became firm friends with Minty and her husband David.
We spent several happy eating holidays in Belgium and France and after David’s untimely death in 1998 Minty joined us on summer and winter family holidays across Europe.
We nearly always spent Christmas together in the Alps
She was a generous godmother to our daughter, Izzi.
I remember on one occasion Minty arrived by car at our Thomson chalet clutching a brace of pheasants that were still dressed in full feathered finery.
She announced to our teenage chalet host that we would be having them for dinner the following evening, regardless of what had already been planned.
“And we’ll have lots of bread sauce,” she announced.
“But I don’t know how to make bread sauce. I’ve never heard of it, and I have no idea how to cook those dead birds.”
“Then it’s high time you learned,” Minty replied.
“I’ll teach you…and don’t worry,” she added handing the birds to me.
“Peter will pluck them.”
Minty and I almost share a birthday and each August we used this as an excuse to indulge in one house of the other in our mutual passion for lobsters.
In a ski resort In Japan with Lynsey Devon and Warren Smith our nine-strong party once chanced upon a restaurant offering sushi-and -sake.
All you can eat and drink for a ridiculously modest price.
Minty and the rest of us tucked in with gusto.
Some enjoyable hours later, the owner of the restaurant announced that as we had apparently consumed 99 – admittedly small – bottles of sake.
And as he’d run out of sushi, the deal was now off.
“99?” said Minty.
“So mean not to round it up.”
Karaoke followed, not, it must be said her strongest talent but it didn’t stop her joining a choir at home.
As in everything Minty did – it was the taking part that mattered.
Well mattered almost as much as the winning.
Later in life she took up sculpture and went on painting holidays surprising herself that she had a natural talent for both.
Her tip for adventure travel?
“Don’t worry. If you’re in a situation where it’s not working out just wait and see if it does.
‘If you’re getting neurotic about when the next bus is coming along you’re going to be anxious all the time and then it’s no fun at all.
You have to let the experience take you where it will.
Without Minty such experiences will never be quite so much fun ever again.
Neil English:
Neil English, Celebrating the life of Minty Clinch at Chelsea Old Church, Wednesday 24th June 2026. Image © PlanetSKI.
We all know our dear Araminta was not one to suffer fools , so I remain eternally grateful that, with me, she made such a long-tern exception.
It’s impossible to cherry pick from all the magic moments during our 35 plus years – including those early years when we were flat and office mates – she was brilliant, totally non judgemental – easy to chill, work and have loads of fun with – even when this special, social safari was occasionally challenged by the one bedroom/one bathroom, set up.
Then of course we were so lucky to share countless foreign adventures – but as you’ve already heard – Minty had so many adventures, with so many people – wrong to say she lived a full life, she lived multiple full lives.
I’ll share one initial adventure – it involved Minty’s driving.
Yes, long been a nerve wracking subject for some.
In my tenure it ranged from super fast to latterly, a mere pootle.
But, bless her – back in 1994 near the end of New Zealand’s winter, she drove our rental car – like a bat-out-of-hell.
Now factor in abnormally massive snow storms, convoys of snowploughs trying to keep mountain roads open – and terrible visibility.
Three mornings straight, the severe weather scuppered our flight to the Tasman glacier for a backcountry ski itinerary that we’d heard was the southern hemisphere’s, Vallée Blanche.
So Minty decided that we must make our own thrills
We’d use the horse power of our car for some modern day ski joring.
For the uninitiated, this is traditionally, skiing, holding a rope, behind a real horse.
We tied together our ski bags and hooked the “rope” to our tow bar.
No helmet, but I needed goggles to protect against exhaust fumes, powder dust from the tyres, plus flurries of sparks when often my skis edged through to tarmac – all at an mph Minty never disclosed.
Incredible, that she kept the car, and me, on the road but after skiing all the top Kiwi resorts, some helicopter indulgence thrown-in and making tracks on lava slopes below an active volcano, none of it came close to the excitement of hanging on for dear life behind Minty’s need for speed.
So, to what Felicity actually asked me to do here.
Minty loved her sport, to do it but also spectate.
She was a big fan of Test cricket, we went to Roland Garros tennis, saw many rugby victories at Twickenham, sadly including a best forgotten match when England were knocked out our own World Cup.
Minty even stooped to watching a few Chelsea matches with me.
But mostly she loved to follow the sporting heroes of all our home nations and especially all things Team GB.
We had the privilege to witness Mo Farah win gold at London’s 2012 Olympics – better late than never Felicity but thanks for those tickets.
We celebrated that medal as if it was ours.
And of course now, Minty will be cheering on England and Scotland in the footie World Cup but I sense she’d have turned the celestial air blue last night with some particularly choice words for Captain Kane.
More importantly, Minty loved this song, the England Team’s unofficial anthem, ‘Sweet Caroline.’
So let’s stand for this special rendition, and please join in, with gusto – WE WANT DEAR MINTY TO HEAR THIS!
Celebrating the life of Minty Clinch at Chelsea Old Church, Wednesday 24th June 2026. Image © PlanetSKI.
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