Andy Nisbet
Scottish mountaineer who lived simply and had a passion for winter climbing that never dimmed
ANDY NISBET, who has died in a climbing accident aged 65, was Scotland’s most prolific mountaineer, notching up over 1,000 first ascents over 50 years of exploratory forays into the hills.
With his flaming red hair and ginger beard (usually covered in hoar frost), soft Aberdonian accent and boundless enthusiasm for getting out in all conditions, he was the embodiment of Scottish winter climbing. Affectionately known as the “honey monster” for his looks and an extraordinary sweet tooth, he made an immeasurable contribution to the sport; few Scottish crags do not have a Nisbet line somewhere up them.
Typical was his first ascent of the 1,150ft Rat Trap route on the central gully wall of Creag an Dubh Loch, a huge imposing cliff on the Balmoral Estate, in 1986. The loch was one of Queen Victoria’s favourite spots and it was not uncommon for Nisbet and his partner Sandy Allan to bump into Prince Charles near the Glass-allt-shiel lodge, stopping for a chat during many reconnaissance trips.
After walking-in for several hours they crawled under a boulder beneath the crag to sleep and began their ascent at dawn. The route was embedded in Nisbet’s meticulous mind and followed intricate crack systems in the frost-blasted rock, and up steep lines of ice. A wrong turn at any time could have spelt disaster.
After climbing for several hours, the pair planned to bivouac on the face but were unable to bring up a haul bag containing their sleeping bags; so they continued.
After an ice axe pick broke they were forced to share axes on the steepest pitches. The last section of steep ice was all the more challenging since their crampons were virtually useless, the pair having deliberately blunted the points to improve their purchase on rock. They eventually summited in darkness after 17 hours. The route was the hardest then climbed, and has not had a second ascent.
Andrew Donald Nisbet was born on May 22 1953 in Aberdeen, the son of Prof John Nisbet, a wartime intelligence officer and educationist. His mother was a zoology lecturer. After Aberdeen Grammar he read Biochemistry at the University. He stayed on and completed a PHD, but soon abandoned academic life in favour of climbing. His father had first introduced him to the hills as a boy and he had been hooked from the start, completing all 282 Munros (3,000ft peaks) as a teenager. (He would eventually complete the round five times.) The Munros led to steeper climbing and ultimately to Scottish winter climbing, where he found his true calling.
Professionally he worked as a guide and instructor. His pupils would leave with vivid memories but his modus operandi frequently alarmed his superiors. Nisbet was not keen on skills training, believing experience on the “real thing” much more valuable.
Students might find themselves wading across rivers and being led up unclimbed frozen waterfalls and buttresses having only just learnt to put on a pair of crampons or swing an ice axe.
But invariably the most terrifying part of the day was sitting as a passenger in Nisbet’s car as he belted home to catch his evening fix of “Heather the weather” on BBC Scotland. So terrifying was his “determined driving” that friends often fought for the back seat. Confidence was not inspired by his other habit of only clearing a narrow slit in the frosted windscreen through which to see.
Nisbet also guided on several expeditions to the Himalayas, making the first ascent of Nanda Kot South Face in 1995 and Nilkanth West Ridge in 2000. The following year he persuaded a gullible client into joining him up the 3,000ft Nanda Ghunti’s South Face, which the rest of the team had abandoned after being forced back by a storm 400ft from the top.
Attempts to curb his enthusiasm were rarely successful. He also made some first ascents in the Alps but never qualified as a full mountain guide as he was hopeless on skis. The mere thought of skiing made him dizzy, according to a friend.
Over the years he had his share of epics. During an attempt on Everest in 1985 he suffered acute snow blindness, an extremely painful condition. In 2003 he fractured his leg in a fall on Liathach and was forced to wait for 14 hours, standing on one leg and hanging off ice screws before a rescue arrived. But his cheery enthusiasm very rarely failed him.
His response to an eventful day in pursuit of a sea stack climb in 1992 that saw him endure seasickness, get stuck half way down an abseil rope that snagged on the boat’s propeller and being washed overboard by a wave, was typical: “What a fantastic day,” he said afterwards.
Nisbet’s knowledge of Scotland’s mountains was encyclopaedic; his ability to read the weather renowned; he catalogued new climbs in Scotland and wrote several climbing guidebooks. A former president of the Scottish Mountaineering Club, he received the Scottish Award for Excellence in Mountain Culture in 2014.
He fell to his death with Steve Perry while climbing on Ben Hope, Scotland’s most northerly Munro on February 5.
A modest and gentle man whose home was as spartan – and cold – as a bothy, Nisbet was loyal and charismatic and had an enthusiasm for climbing that never dimmed.
He is survived by a sister, his wife Gillian having predeceased him in 2006. There were no children.
Andy Nisbet, born May 22 1953, died February 6 2019