Hamish MacInnes Mountaineer
HAMISH MACINNES, who has died at 90, was a pioneering mountaineer who created new routes along Glencoe and was recognised as the father of Scottish mountain rescue.
He was also a car builder, constructing his first vehicle from scratch when he was 17, and the designer of the first all- metal ice axe in the late 1940s – which he did not manufacture until around two decades later. The folding stretchers used in rescues around the world to this day are named after him.
Mr MacInnes conquered the Matterhorn at 16 and was part of four Everest expeditions, with the first a two- man effort with John Cunningham in 1953, when they met a young Edmund Hillary at base camp.
In 1975, he was deputy leader of the first all- British team to scale Everest’s south- west face – a venture led by Chris Bonington and which also included Graham Tiso, Mick Burke, Nick Estcourt, Dougal Haston, Barney Rosedale and Doug Scott.
Mr MacInnes’ expertise led him to become an adviser on several films including The Eiger Sanction starring Clint Eastwood and The Mission, featuring Robert de Niro and Jeremy Irons.
Last year, a film based on Mr MacInnes himself, called
Final Ascent, premiered at the Glasgow Film Festival and was attended by his friend, Sir Michael Palin.
It focused on his attempts to regain his memories through old film and photographs after he was sent to psycho- geriatric detainment in a hospital in the Highlands six years ago.
Born in Dumfries and Galloway in 1930, Mr MacInnes was the recipient of an OBE and the British Empire Medal, and was inducted into the Scottish Sport Hall of Fame in 2003.