Name Hamish MacInnes | Role Mountaineer | |
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Books International Mountain Rescue H, The Mammoth Book of M, The price of adventure, Climb to the lost world, Look behind the ranges Born 7 July 1930 (age 90) , Gatehouse of Fleet, United Kingdom Died 22 November 2020 (aged 90) Glen Coe, Scotland | ||
Allen fyffe and hamish macinnes climbing ben nevis 1974
Hamish MacInnes OBE (7 July 1930 – 22 November 2020) was a Scottish mountaineer, mountain search and rescuer, author and advisor.
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He was born Hamish McInnes in Gatehouse of Fleet, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland but registered in Girthon, Kirkcudbright in 1930. He made the first winter ascent of Crowberry Ridge Direct and of Raven's Gully on Buachaille Etive Mòr with Chris Bonington in 1953. He designed the first all-metal ice axe, and is credited with introducing the short ice axe and hammer with inclined picks for Scottish winter work in the early 1960s. He pioneered the exploration of the Glencoe cliffs for winter work with the Glencoe School of Winter Climbing and for many years led the area's Mountain Rescue team. He is recognised as having developed modern mountain rescue in Scotland, setting up the Search and Rescue Dog Association and the Avalanche Information Service, and inventing the MacInnes stretcher, which is used for rescues worldwide. In 1975, MacInnes was deputy leader to Bonington's Mount Everest Southwest Face expedition, which included Dougal Haston and Doug Scott.
Although never an official member, MacInnes climbed extensively with the Creagh Dhu, Glasgow-based climbing club as well as with the rival Aberdeen clubs and joined forces with Tom Patey to make the first winter traverse of the Cuillin Ridge on Skye. He was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2003 and received the Scottish Award for Excellence in Mountain Culture in 2008.
He was appointed an Officer of the British Empire (OBE)for services to mountaineering and mountain rescue in Scotland in the New Year's Honours list of 30 December 1978.
He was involved with a number of films, as climber, climbing double and safety officer, including The Eiger Sanction and The Mission, and wrote many books on mountaineering, including the International Mountain Rescue Handbook (1972), regarded as the standard manual worldwide, and Callout (1973), his classic account of his experiences leading the Glencoe Rescue team.
MacInnes also received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1992
Died
He died on 22 November 2020, aged 90, at his home in Glen Coe. Writing on his death, the Scottish daily The Scotsman said, "No one man has done more to help put in place the network of emergency response efforts designed to keep climbers from harm’s way, and it seems that MacInnes took just as much pleasure in helping to rescue people as he did in making record-breaking ascents."