Glencoe pays final respects to mountaineering legend
Mourners lined the main road through Glencoe on Friday to pay their last respects to mountaineering legend Dr Hamish MacInnes OBE BEM as the hearse carrying his body passed through the village.
Dr MacInnes, who lived in the village, died at home last month at the age of 90 and his funeral service was held in private at Glasgow Crematorium.
However, before the service, the funeral cortege carrying Dr MacInnes’ body left the funeral parlour in Inverlochy, making its way to Glencoe, passing through the village, which included a pause for reflection outside the famous mountaineer’s home.
As well as a mountaineering pioneer of Scottish and international renown, Dr MacInnes was also a world authority on mountain rescue techniques, author of the International Mountain Rescue Handbook and the designer and manufacturer of the MacInnes Stretcher and all-metal ice axe.
Born in Gatehouse of Fleet, Kirkcudbrightshire, in 1930, Dr MacInnes’ exploits included the first winter ascent of Crowberry Ridge Direct and of Raven’s
Gully on Buachaille Etive Mòr with Chris Bonington in 1953.
He pioneered climbing routes on the Glencoe cliffs for winter work with Glencoe School of Winter Climbing and for many years was the leader of the area’s mountain rescue team. Dr MacInnes is widely acknowledged as the founder of modern mountain rescue in Scotland, setting up the Search and Rescue Dog Association and the Avalanche Information Service. He was deputy leader on Bonington’s successful Mount Everest Southwest Face expedition of 1975, which included Dougal Haston and Doug Scott.
In a statement on the day he died, November 23, Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team (GMRT) leader Andy Nelson offered the team’s own tribute, saying Dr MacInnes had brought together great mountaineering men and women, helping to establish GMRT and innovated rescue systems and engineering aids to climbing and rescue, now distributed throughout the world. He added: ‘Most of all, Hamish was a man of the Glen, still walking out until very recently, loving where he lived. He had time for all the community and embraced any opportunity for a blether, equally about local projects and legend of far flung escapades. In these difficult times, he would still encourage us to seize the day, because ‘life is for living’.’
Paying its own tribute online, Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team added: ‘A mountaineering legend, he gave much to Scottish and worldwide mountain rescue. From the rescue stretcher we use today, the MacInnes Mark 6, to the invention of the Pterodactyl ice axe, we have much to thank him for. We would like to celebrate his achievements and remember the countless numbers of folk saved on the mountains due to his innovation and tenacity.’