The Ice Men

 

National Geographic Film 1974
A history of Scottish Winter Mountainering

Crafts & Things Coffee shop has been something of an institution among climbers for years. Many climbers have stayed with David Cooper and Kishema who owned the business until recently.  “Crafts & Things” is a meeting place for a pre climb coffee, or post climb tea and cake. It was the daily routine of legend Hamish MacInnes to be there in the morning, Hamish disliked strong tea preferring as he called a gnat’s piss tea which was just a cup of hot water, accompanied by a scone. Crafts & Things was always a good place to chat with friends from far and wide who wanted to see Hamish. Chris Bonington, Doug Scott, Dave Bathgate, Dave Cuthbertson, Rob Taylor, Yvon Chouinard and sundry locals who just liked to come in and have a chat with him.

Fort William Mountain Film Festival February 2010 was 50 years since Jimmy Marshall and Robin Smiths epic weekend during February 1960, climbing what were to become some of Scotland finest winter classic climbs.  Jimmy was to receive the excellence in mountain culture award at the film festival that year and attend as part of an event called “The Ice Men”. Hamish inventor of the dropped pick Terrodactyl ice axe, and Yvonne Chouinard founder of Patagonia and the curved pick ice axe made up this famous trio of pioneers.

These drop pick or curved ice tools, along with the modern 12-point crampon with angled front points revolutionized steep ice climbing. These developments were 10 years in the future when Jimmy Marshall and Robin Smith had their epic week staying at the old CIC hut at the foot of the Ben. They repeated Point Five Gully in 4 hours as a second ascent cutting steps (The first ascent took days) and made the first winter ascents of The Great Chimney (IV,5), Minus Three Gully (IV,5), Smith’s Route (V,5), Observatory Buttress (V,4), Pigott’s Route (V,6) and Orion Direct (V,5). These routes were all climbed cutting steps and hand slots with one axe.

Jimmy Marshall's achievements on the Scottish mountains from the late 1950s and early 1960s demonstrated his remarkable skill. Marshall's legacy in the world of climbing, particularly in Scotland, is huge. His first ascents of challenging routes, often in less-than-ideal conditions highlight his technical expertise, determination, and the pioneering spirit of climbers of that era. The fact that many of his routes took many years to be repeated due to their technical difficulty, and the need for advancements in ice climbing technology, which helped future climbers make repeat ascents speaks to the level of innovation and courage exhibited by Jimmy. Jimmy was a well-deserved recipient of the Excellence in Mountain Culture award that year 2010.

The Ice Men” festival lecture, was packed out. The day after, Hamish, Jimmy, Yvonne, David Cooper, Dave “Cubby” Cuthbertson (Cubby is also a legend of Scottish climbing) and I all gathered around our favorite coffee shop table to chat about all things climbing and mountains. Past epics and adventures, and with Yvonne always a bit of fishing as well. Such gentlemen, it was an occasion very much for me to listen and say very little. I may have contributed to the conversation a tiny bit and must say I was treated with the greatest respect for my own very modest achievements compared to these giants of mountaineering history. Yvonne and I talked about Salmon fishing for a bit, and Jimmy and I chatted about his climbing and some of the climbs of his I had repeated. Such a nice guy who talked fondly of the fun he had among Scotland’s mountains. He frequently said climbing was all about the fun, not the grades. Something that perhaps gets forgotten in social media.

We must have been chatting for about two hours and consumed a lot of caffeine when Jimmy Saville appeared on the scene, looking around for adulation as always. We sort of knew him, but he was always kept at a distance. Those of us with wives were warned by them that he was a creep. The women had him sussed and did not like him. He could be very personable, but then I guess sociopaths can be. He tried to join our table by dragging over a chair, but none of us would let him in, or let him speak. He had a few tries, but no one would give him room. Crestfallen, he made off in his gold bling and tracksuit to seek attention elsewhere among the tourists. Our table just ignored him. The rest of the afternoon passed in a caffeinated haze as folk came and chatted with the legends. Walking homeward I reflected on how fortunate I was to have spent time with these good people of the mountains. Inspirational people, not just because of what they had achieved, but also because it came tempered with a respect and humility for the natural world, the mountains, and the people among them.

When writing my book “Between a Loch and a Hard Place, looking back, I am aware, perhaps more so with age, that it’s the people I have met that have blessed my life and enriched it. My humble climbing achievements were fun too, and life enhanced by these good people who had shown me a way to a bigger world of travel, mountains and humility in my youth.

Worth a watch:

The Edge. Scottish Climbing

“Live it up, drink it up,

drown your sorrows while you may.

For the grand old men of tomorrow,

were the tigers of yesterday.

Tom Patey

Hamish the Legend

A recollection of Hamish from an article by Gary Latter in "Climber" magazine a few years ago celebrating his 80th Birthday. It was sent to me to comment on and add to before print having given Gary a few tales of the old fox. Gary was himself a member of the team for a few years mid 1980's.  I have added some personal input and a collage of pictures with some additional text but Gary's article is a good summary of an exceptional life, a legend which some of us had the privilege to be a small part of with GMRT, on film escapades, or knowing him as a neighbour in the village of Glencoe.

Born in Gatehouse of Fleet, in Dumfries and Galloway on 7 July 1930, Hamish was brought up in Greenock, where his father had an engineering business. At age 14 in 1945, Hamish noticed “a bloke lived nearby, chap called Bill Hargreaves” would go off climbing on his motorbike at weekends. Hamish asked if he could join him and  was introduced to the hills.

Hamish has made his name in many different ways: climber, adventurer, mountain rescuer, designer, film & safety work, writer and photographer. He climbed both at home and abroad with many of the great names of the latter half of 20th century mountaineering, including John Cunningham, Chris Bonington, Ian Clough, Tom Patey, Kenny Spence, Allen Fyffe, Ian Nicholson, Yvon Chouinard, Dougal Haston, Don Whillans, Joe Brown, Mo Anthoine, Paul

Nunn and Martin Boysen. 

Hitching out to the Alps at the age of 17, he recalls jam coming off the wartime ration book just as he reached Dover. Exploration and adventure have been at the core of most of his exploits over the years. Whether its searching for gold on the remote west coast of South Island New Zealand, or Inca gold in South America; searching for the Yeti in the foothills of the Himalaya, or climbing the vegetated and wildly otherworldly  tepui of Roraima deep in the jungle of Guyana, fighting off scorpions, bird-eating spiders and bushmaster snakes en route - he’s been there and lived to tell the tale!

Known by some as “the old fox of Glencoe”, Hamish has lived in the glen for over half a century, first moving to the small whitewashed cottage Allt-na-Ruigh, above the meeting of the Three Waters in 1959. He then moved further down the glen to the National Trust owned Achnacon in 1970, later building his own place, on the back road between the village and the Clachaig in 1998.

The old fox sporting a Mary Poppins look on some alpine film set

National Service for 19 months at the age of 17 was “quite a pivotal experience”, as he was posted to Austria. Here, on the steep limestone walls of the Kaisergebirge, he acquired a taste for pegging from the Austrians. His attraction for pegging back home in Scotland later earned him the nickname “MacPiton”, with routes like Porcupine Wall on The Cobbler, Engineer’s Crack on the Buachaille, many routes throughout the Skye Cuillin, including Creag Dhu Grooves, and the long sustained Titan’s Wall on Carn Dearg Buttress, Ben Nevis. 

Although particularly known for his long and pioneering involvement in mountain rescue and mountain safety, early on in his climbing career, Hamish was also on the receiving end of rescues. In January 1951, whilst attempting the first winter ascent of Raven’s Gully on the Buachaille with Creagh Dhu members Charlie Vigano and John Cullen, Hamish was leading on a 160’ rope (quite a long rope at the time), when the rope jammed (it was also dark by this point). Unable to free it or descend, he untied and continued, but reached an impasse 10 feet from the top. Bridged across the iced-up chimney, he braced himself for a long night, dressed in just jeans and a thin shirt underneath his anorak. His rucksack with warm clothing was with his mates down below, who fared much better, being dressed in heavy motorcycle jackets. Luckily fellow Creagh Dhu member Bill Smith was driving up the road and spotted their headtorch lights and, along with others, including Jimmy Marshall, eventually dropped a top-rope down to him and extracted him in the early hours. “I thought I’d had it, I was so bloody cold.”

The second instance occurred in the French Alps. The teenage Hamish had an arrangement with the famous French guide Lionel Terray (first ascent of Makalu and author of the wonderful Conquistadors of the Useless). As route finding was difficult, Hamish had an arrangement with Terray, where he would solo a suitable distance behind Terray and his client. On a traverse of the Grande Charmoz, the pair had made a 40’ abseil from an in situ nylon sling on a bollard. Hamish threaded his rope and proceeded to follow suit, only for the sling to break as soon as he weighted it. On impacting the small ledge at the base, his knees were driven up into his eye sockets, temporarily blinding him. Luckily he didn’t go any further down the remaining 600’ drop to the glacier. Another famous Swiss guide, Raymond Lambert was nearby, and the pair effected a rescue.

Climbing Achievements
1951: 4 routes on The Cobbler in the company of two of the finest climbers in the
country at the time, Creagh Dhu members John Cunningham and Bill Smith,
including the fine Gladiator’s Groove (HVS) and wildly exposed Whither
Wether (VS)

1952: Peasants’s Passage, Wappenshaw Wall on the Rannoch Wall, and
Bludger’s Route on Slime Wall with Pat Walsh, later combined into the classic
Bludger’s Revelation.

February 1953: Agag’s Groove (VII, 6), Crowberry Ridge Direct (VII, 7) and
Raven’s Gully (V, 5)

Late fifties instructing work for the Mountaineering Association (the predecessor of the BMC) in the Skye Cuillin saw the opening up of many good rock routes, including such well-trodden modern classics as Vulcan Wall (HVS) and Creagh Dhu Grooves (E3) both with some aid, on Sron na Ciche’s Eastern Buttress, and the fine Grand Diedre (VS), over the back of the ridge in Coir’ a’ Ghrunnda, all climbed with Ian Clough.

February 1957: Zero Gully (V, 4) on Ben Nevis with Aberdonians Tom Patey & Graham Nicol. This was Hamish’s seventh attempt at the much sought-after line, having arrived via the Carn Mor Dearg arete from Steall Hut in Glen Nevis, on learning that other teams were showing an interest.

April 1959: Titan’s Wall on Carn Dearg Buttress, Ben Nevis with Ian Clough, which came in for much criticism at the time due to its extensive use of aid, though it would be two decades and numerous attempts by several of the top climbers of the day before it was finally freed by Mick Fowler in 1977.

February 1965: First winter traverse of the Cuillin Ridge, with Davie Crabb,

Tom Patey and Brian Robertson. North Face of Pik Schurouski in the Caucasus was an outstanding route with 2 bivvys, with Paul Nunn and Chris Woodall. (Still unrepeated!) The Glencoe School of Winter Mountaineering, which operated from 1964-74, over the years employed many of the best climbers in the country at the time, including Ian Clough, Jim McCartney, Allan Fyffe, Kenny Spence, Dave Knowles, and Ian Nicholson.

Encounters
Glencoe-based guide and rescue team member Paul Moores: ‘One of my first impressionable moments of Hamish - he used to keep an immaculate garden at Achnacon. I went round to visit him. He wasn’t in the house, but I eventually found him in his garage, working on the huge V12 engine of his E-type jaguar. Hamish had his finger trapped under the cylinder head, and I managed to rig up a rope on a beam and winch it off. When asked what he would have done had I not shown up: “Well, I knew the postman was coming tomorrow.”’ ‘Hamish used to hold an annual party, usually in the Summer, with loads of folk from all over. He would make these huge trifles – at least 6 washing up bowls. Mike Begg, the producer of BBC Outdoor Broadcasts was there, with his then girlfriend, Margaret Thatcher’s daughter Carol. Hamish, in his fifties, was going out with Betsy Brantley, an American actress in her twenties, whom he met while overseeing the safety on the Hollywood film Five Days One Summer. While the party was in full swing, a police car pulled, up with lights and sirens blaring. “We’ve got a complaint.” The local bobbies soon took of their caps and joined the party. Later on, some of the partygoers got all the empty cans and bottles and loaded them into the back of the police range rover. After the party the bobbies walked back along the road, two of their colleagues returning in the morning to collect the vehicle.'

Paul and another local rescue team member, Hugh McNicol arrived at Achnacon on a blisteringly hot midsummers day and asked if they could swim in his pools (in the adjacent River Coe). Although never really a drinker (usually a half cider at best), Hamish used to make vast quantities of his own Silver Birch sap wine. Hamish set a table and 3 deck chairs up and opened a gallon flagon of his homemade brew, and got “completely and utterly miraculous”, then later made ‘dinner’ which was ‘eventful’ to say the least, including all the peas exploding from the microwave. Later, Paul’s wife Ros drove them all up the glen to the Kingshouse where they continued drinking. Hamish was supposed to be filming the next day, with the helicopter pilot buzzing the house, hovering outside his bedroom in an attempt to rouse him from his slumber. Hamish has never drunk since.

Glencoe local and stalwart rescue team member for many years Davy Gunn: “If I had a camera in my early climbing and rescue years, one picture I wish I had taken was that of Hamish in Glen Etive beside an abandoned min-van. We had gallon cans of beans in our old WW2 rescue truck as sustenance, and lacking a plate and spoon there he was sitting on a rock beside the river with his iconic cap on, eating cold beans out of a mini headlight glass with a big dirty channel peg. That image will always stay locked into my brain as the epitome of a hard man climber picture. Yet behind that picture was a gentleman.” “Hamish is a tough customer. Cold doesn’t seem to bother him and he has always been immensely strong.” “As a young sixteen year old mad keen on climbing, Hamish took me and another local lad Ronnie Rodgers under his wing. As the youngest, as long as I tagged along on rescues not getting in the way and helping a bit, then odd bits of gear would arrive from “Fishers of Keswick” (pre Nevisport) or Typhoo’s (Tiso’s), ordered for me by Hamish to encourage me for my labours.”

GMRT Founder and Leader. Below Twisting Gully 1983

Peter Debbage:

February 1969: ‘I booked onto a Glencoe School of Winter Mountaineering course. Was told that we wouldn’t meet the great man as he was never there. And so it proved. For the first two days we were dragged up various things by Ian Clough and Jim McCartney and no sign of him. On the evening of the second day this tall weather beaten man appears with a ‘presence’. Apparently he did this. He got the others to suss out the better climbers and collared them for the third day. We were leading HVS at the time, which was a respectable grade in those days. Pointing to me and my two mates, he said “You, you and you, come with me tomorrow.” And then he disappeared. Panting up behind him in an open  necked shirt and sports jacket (at between minus 5 and 10). “What are we doing today, Hamish?” “Och I fancy yon wee gully up there” he uttered. “What grade is it Hamish?” “Och how the hell should I know laddie – it’s never been done before” he retorted. For the next 3 days we were dragged up a series of desperate new routes by Hamish. I have never forgotten that and it remains one of the outstanding experiences of my climbing career.’

Chris Bonington:

Recollections of Chris Bonington’s first encounters and climbing exploits with  Hamish are well covered in Bonington’s first autobiography ‘I Choose to Climb”; from their first meeting in on the Buachaille, when 18 year old Chris was staying with members of the Climbers Club at Lagangarbh. “Hamish handed over to us ‘gnomie’ (Gordon McIntosh) who was the slowest climber there ever was, and as a team of three, we climbed behind Hamish and Kerr MacPhail on the first winter ascent of Agag’s Groove (VII, 6) on the Rannoch Wall.” Chris was climbing in Clinker nails, Hamish in Tricounis (another type of nailed boots), with straight picked axes. Chris stayed on, and later that week Hamish and Chris made the first winter ascents of Crowberry Ridge Direct (VII, 7) and Raven’s Gully (V, 5) on consecutive days, the latter in “pretty manky condition”, Hamish having to remove his boots to lead the last two pitches in his socks. 

Both Agag’s and Crowberry were well ahead of their time – the precursor of the modern snowed up rock routes now commonplace – definitely routes in the modern idiom. Chris recalls: “It was an amazing privilege to be climbing with one of the best all round mountaineers in Britain at the time, on my very first ever winter season.” Later, in 1957 Hamish wrote to Chris, asking “how about climbing in the Alps.” They attempted the North Face of the Eiger, which would have been Bonington’s first ever alpine route (talk about being thrown in at the deep end!), but the weather turned on their first day, and they retreated in the dark. Moving to Chamonix, they set off to do the Walker Spur, but got lost on the glacier, and ended up climbing a new route on the Auguille du Tacul instead. Chris also went on to say “Two, no three of my greatest influences in climbing have all been Scots – Hamish, Tom Patey and Dougal Haston.” “ When I think of Hamish, it is with a mixture of respect, friendship and enjoyment – he has an incredibly broad interest and passion, he’s hyper strong, and also a super designer – he is one of the very, very great characters of British mountaineering.”

Innovations

First all metal ice axe, in 1947– dubbed ‘The Message’ by the Creagh Dhu, later manufactured in the sixties by Massey (of Massey Ferguson tractor manufacturers), hence the early taglines “as strong as tractors”. Pivotal in the advancement of modern technical winter climbing, was a fortuitous meeting with visiting Americans Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tomkins in February 1970 at the Clachaig Inn in Glen Coe, where Chouinard unveiled his curved pick ice axe. The next morning, MacInnes had produced dropped pick axe – the prototype of the ‘terrodactyl’, so called by Ian Clough when he first saw the aggressive looking snout. Although there were informal rescues in the glen, carried out by the local shepherds such as the Elliot’s and any climbers who were around; Hamish started the team in 1959, (the year he moved to Glencoe), primarily in order to raise funds for equipment. The first aluminium MacInnes stretcher was produced in 1961. This innovative design has undergone continuous development and refinements throughout its many incarnations, with the latest Mark 7 version utilising composite materials and titanium. Various versions of these are used by rescue teams, the military and police forces throughout the world.

Hamish & Yvonne Chouinard

Books

Author of 23 books, including the innovative 2 volume ‘Scottish Climbs’

selective guide, which was the first guide to make extensive use of photo diagrams, though the quirky use of alpine grades for rock routes (and adjective grades for Winter routes!) never quite caught on. His ‘International Mountain Rescue Handbook’ has become the definitive textbook on the subject, and been constantly in print since its release in 1972. Several have been translated into numerous languages.

Filming 

Worked as either climbing cameraman or safety consultant on hundreds of documentaries and films, including the live outside broadcast spectaculars of the Old Man of Hoy, Gogarth and Freakout and Spacewalk, in addition to producing several of his own tourist-orientated DVDs, narrated by either Sean Connery (who met on Five Days One Summer), or Michael Palin (met on Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail), both remaining good friends. Film work includes looking after safety on the Clint Eastwood Hollywood blockbuster ‘The Eiger Sanction’, and working with Robert De Niro on ‘The Mission’.

Honours

“I don’t join anything unless I can’t possibly avoid it, not even climbing clubs.” In addition to being founder and team leader of Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team, also founded Search and Rescue Dog Association (SARDA), honorary member of Scottish Mountaineering Club and ex President of the Alpine Climbing Group. Mainly in recognition of his great contribution to mountaineering and mountain safety worldwide, Hamish has received many honours from outwith the mountaineering world, including M.B.E and O.B.E., a Doctorate from Glasgow University and honorary degrees from four other Scottish universities. He was awarded the ‘Great Scot Award’ in 2000, inducted into the ‘Scottish Sports Hall of Fame’ in 2003, and awarded the inaugural ‘Scottish Award for Excellence in Mountain Culture’ in 2009.

Having a blether sitting on Tom Patey's old GP surgery chair

Allt na Ruigh Cottage Glencoe

Hells Bells!  

Jimmy Saville is becoming more of a nuisance in death than he could be at times in life.  Don't get me wrong, whenever he was on his own wandering about the area he was very personable and good conversation, however a complete pain if there were other folk about to show off to.  My girls didn't like him and would walk the other way if he was about, and as it turns out their instincts were right. In old fashioned terms it seems he was a groper in his youth or much worse, and a bit of dirty old man when old.  Regardless, folk in the community knew nothing of any past allegations at the BBC and like any guest in the area he was given a welcome, and folk would take time to chat and have a coffee with him. 

He always seemed to have a couple of male friends with him and there were never females about, either at the cottage or in his company. Only when HRH the Duke of Rothsay visited and a possy of local women dressed up as bunny girls was I ever aware of a woman being at the cottage, and pictures of them were in the papers. Given the location of his cottage, unless he was accosting women from passing citylink buses or kidnapping them in his midget Toyota van then it's hard to understand the hype about the cottage having been used for any abuse.  It would indeed be a terrible thing if this had happened, but having asked the Police I am assured nothing untoward ever happened here.

There has been talk off pulling down the cottage at Allt na Ruigh.  Before Jimmy Saville, Jane Naismith and her partner owned the cottage and used it as a holiday home for climbing trips throughout the 1970's/80's/90's.  Before that, until about 1974 Hamish MacInnes owned the cottage using its outbuildings for making ice axes and the famous MacInnes rescue stretchers. Hamish didnt really like the cottage much and after a fire there left for Achnacon further down the Glen, to a bigger house and workshops, and the setting up of the Leishman avalanche research centre.

Going back further in time when Allt na Ruigh was a road mans house, this was the famous Downies place with "Downies Barn" immortalised by Alastair Borthwick in his book on inter war hardship, exploratory climbingt, and the impoverished youth of Clydebank and the inner city finding the mountains. "Always a Little Further" is a great read about the poorer non middle class SMC type of mountaineer, a dosser with no money and little time, but a huge spirit. Pre Downies it was lived in by a family called MacInnes's (no reltion to Hamish) and belonged to the Strathcona Estate as a stalkers cottage.

Allt na Reigh

These "roadman" houses are dotted all along the old A82 with most of them now climbing huts such as Lagangarbh and Blackrock. Crofting and road mending provided a living.  Lagangarbh was equally famous. "Dan Mackays Barn" was the doss around the back. Both Dans and Downies barns were full of hay as the roadmen were paid a stipend for road maintenance such as filling in holes and keeping culverts clear by the then Argyll County Council, and were crofter/hill farmers with a few sheep and some cattle. The point here is that these cottages were family homes and also places of highland hospitality and safety for a generation of war weary, penniless young folk seeking the spirit of the mountains.

I know more of the Downies as "Rob" (pronounced "Rop" in the gaelic) moved with his family down to Glencoe village when he retired, staying in a council house at Lorn Drive.  Like many old men he had fought in WW1. The Downie sisters all married and their sons and daughters are now Macolls and Kemps. As a kid with  Duncan Downie one of "Rops" grandchildren I used to go to Allt na Ruigh and fish for trout in the gorge below the house often with stern warnings from his grandmother about its dangers and tales of broken climbers.

Really what I am saying here, is that Jimmy Saville is a small piece of that buildings history. Very small and insignificant.  If this thing with Jimmy Saville teaches us anything it's that fame and money are nothing. What the Downies and Borthwicks teach us is that kindness, an open heart and being your brothers keeper lives on longer than some blinged up tv personality, and that Allt na Ruigh should stay where it is because of them and to despite him.

Sans Peur

New Book "Between a Loch and a Hard Place

Book £12.95

Postage £3.30 1st Class Royal Mail

email davygunn@gmail.com with your address if you would like a copy. I will reply with payment details

The author was born in Oban and brought up in the village of Carnoch, better known nowadays as Glencoe village. A Highland upbringing rich in community. Glencoe is an area steeped in bloody history, surrounded by mountains and cut through by the River Coe. Known for its infamous 1692 massacre, Glencoe is also famed for its mountaineering, with people coming from all over the world to climb its majestic peaks and test themselves on its rock and ice climbs. Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team has a long history of saving lives and of rescue from the West Highlands and has had a few of Scotland’s best mountaineers as members. Not least was one of the rescue team founders, Hamish MacInnes.

This book gives some local history and insight into how a Highland boy lived beside a river that gave quietude and wonder as its silver leapers, the Atlantic salmon, forged up through its foamy waters into the mountains. And where the boy, me, was to meet mountain folk who opened his eyes to a broader world and possibilities. This book is about my upbringing, and the community of Glencoe that formed me. The reader may find the climbing and rescue tales a bit technical as I have used the terms and technicalities of the sport. The same is true for skiing. Forgive me as it’s hard to convey some of these ascents and descents without these technical details. Skip past bits if necessary and just enjoy the book as a collection of impressions and short tales.

The River is the thread

Running stitches through time

Gathering mountains, forests and sea

And binding me to this land

Lucy Morrice

Dwindle Wall basking in the late evening sun

In the late 1950’s early 1960’s a young Indian born star, living in Edinburgh studying philosophy, was shining bright on the Scottish climbing scene.  A veritable Sirius in the galaxy of rock climbing. The list of his legacy is long, even though his life was short. Killed in the Pamirs with Wilfred Noyce in 1962. Robin Smith, a name synonymous with hard quality rock climbs on Scottish mountain crags.

Glencoe is host to some of his outstanding climbs. A lesser-known Smith route aptly named Dwindle Wall, overlooks the upper Glen. Creag na Tulaich, a smaller buttress than Creag a' Bhancair below isn’t a big crag and Dwindle Wall starts at its left side in a chimney groove, then crosses its face before heading straight up to finish. When I climbed it with local Alan Thomson it was graded VS 150ft and had about four brief lines as the guidebook description. I was working my way through the graded guidebook list, and although it’s a short route it just had to be ticked off.

A sunny June afternoon and I was a bit fed up, as there wasn’t much to do after a training session on the road bike, so I gave Alan a phone and asked if he fancied an afternoon climb. He collected me in his car. We took my rack and twin 150ft 9mm ropes for the climbing.

We started off on a lovely route on the crag below called Cayman Grooves. Beautiful well protected climbing with lovely positions up to a belay on a terrace. You have to pick your time for this part of the crag as a raptor sometimes nests behind the tree belay and is best left alone if you hear or see it flying about. The next pitch goes up the left side of a big open groove without much gear, bold but easy enough climbing. The route to the right, Piranha is a lovey VS and to the left of Cayman Grooves is Walk with Destiny, which is in my opinion a superb route going at E2 5c.

Alan and I finished up and went up and over to the bottom of Dwindle Wall. I found the start and led off up the groove. It was a bit rattly if I remember right, and not much gear, although I found an old piton. Then you leave the sanctuary of the groove and traverse right along a ramp of good rock that is devoid of any protection. Very quickly you are in ground fall territory and running out rope with no gear as you move right and up.

At a point when well up the ramp disappears, then it’s up the steep wall above. No move is particularly hard. Maybe sustained 4c, but by this time you are 80 feet above your last gear and have another 40 to go to the top. I was about 15ft from the heather at the top above me when the rope wouldn’t move. I had run out of rope and there was still a couple of sketchy moves to make. It was hot and I was having to dig really deep to keep it together. I shouted as loud as I could for Alan to start climbing and gave a hefty two tugs on one of the ropes.

 Alan had some starting moves of about 5a on less than perfect rock, so this was a pretty serious situation. I felt some give on the ropes and waited a bit. Alan thought I was on belay, and he was safe. Was he fuck! I started slowly moving up and was a wee bit scared. Really scared actually, as I would fly if I fell, and go away past the bottom of the crag and would die.

 Alan wouldn’t be unscathed either. Eventually I got to near the top and its extreme heather pulling to get over the top. As a climber and rescuer going into shitty places you become accustomed to heather pulling and testing the quality of Calluna vulgaris for pulling on. This wasn’t good but grab enough then pull and hope. I got over with just enough rope and as Alan ascended I just kept walking, ready at any point to just fall down and grab anything if Alan should fall off.

Eventually I reached a spot where I could sit and brace myself against a big rock and waist belay Alan up. Fairly safe at last. 150ft (45m) ropes were just not long enough and 50m or even better modern 60m ropes would be better. Dwindle Wall is a bold route typical of Robin Smith, and even with modern gear I suspect it will test nerve and not be for those who are not accustomed to a bit of soloing or soul searching. Smith was truly a great climber. His route Marshalls Wall, down in the lower glen is also very bold. Named, I believe, after Jimmy Marshall, who to wind Robin up had called a winter route first ascent "Smiths gully" as he knew robin had it in mind. Retaliation from Robin Smith was naming Marshall’s wall after Jimmy, possibly as it was a line Jimmy was after. Tit for tat between young and old maestros of rock and ice.

Robin Smith aka "Wheech"