Palin: I phoned mountain rescue hero to ask for directions on K2
Monty Python star appears in new film about the remarkable life of veteran climber Hamish Macinnes
WHEN lost in the Himalayan mountains, some may turn to a compass, others retrace their steps and a fair few could be forgiven for panicking.
When you are Sir Michael Palin, and have the phone number of one of the world’s greatest mountain rescuers, there is another option.
The broadcaster has told how he scaled K2 after telephoning Hamish Macinnes, the author of The International Mountain Rescue Handbook, at his home in Scotland for directions.
Sir Michael first met Mr Macinnes while searching in Scotland for locations for a Monty Python film, and now appears in a documentary called Final Ascent, about the climber’s remarkable life.
A former mountain rescue head, Mr Macinnes, 88, has climbed peaks around the globe and invented life-saving equipment, including a mountain rescue stretcher, still used worldwide.
Speaking at the documentary’s UK premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival, Sir Michael said: “I rang Hamish from the heart of the Karakorum mountains: ‘I can see K2 how do I get there?’”
Mr Macinnes said: “I was in the workshop back home and I got a call. He had a satellite phone and he was in the Himalayas and he asked me how far is it to Concordia – that’s a plateau right on K2 – and I said, ‘well it’s not that far’.
“He got up there with a film crew and got the most amazing footage.”
The pair met while scouting for film locations in Scotland, when the mountaineer helped to set up a rope bridge in Glen Coe, which became the famed “Bridge of Death” in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Sir Michael said: “In Glen Coe, Hamish was helping us with certain structural problems, like who would build the Bridge of Death over this terrifying gorge. Hamish found the place, built the bridge … he was the head of mountain rescue and he was throwing bodies into a gorge.
“This was before CGI and special effects and we had the real thing, thanks to Hamish.”
Final Ascent will tell the story of how Mr Macinnes pieced his life back together from his own books and films after being sectioned in 2014 with delirium related to dementia.
Experts now believe he could have been suffering from a urinary tract infection. Mr Macinnes said he may have been overwhelmed by fumes from a weed killer before being found unconscious in his garden.
After rereading his own life story until his memory was “98 per cent” complete, he was allowed to go home after 15 months.
Sir Michael said: “He’s inspirational really. He’s unlike anyone else I know and he has qualities unlike anybody else I know.
“After his illness a few years back it’s so great to see him not just back on form but better than ever, almost.”
Robbie Fraser, the director of the documentary film, said Mr Macinnes had “probably saved thousands of lives” through carrying out his own rescues, equipment innovations and writing the mountain rescue “bible”.
The International Mountain Rescue Handbook was first published in 1972 and is considered the standard text.