One of the founders of modern winter mountaineering, Hamish MacInnes was equally famous for his exploits on the mountain and his equipment designs. These include the first all-metal ice axe and the MacInnes mountain rescue stretchers now used internationally.

Born in Gatehouse of Fleet, Kirkcudbrightshire, in 1930, Hamish made his first of many attempts to climb Everest in 1953. It was an audacious shoe-string trip made in the company fellow Scot John Cunningham, of the Glasgow-based Creagh Dhu Mountaineering Club. Two decades later he was deputy leader of the successful 1975 Everest Southwest Face expedition.

A pioneering figure who founded the Search and Rescue Dog Association and the Scottish Avalanche Information Service, Hamish is a world authority on mountain rescue. He has written 21 books and contributed to numerous films, such as The Eiger Sanction and The Mission, in his capacity as a mountaineering expert.

Nicknamed the ‘Fox of Glencoe’, in 2008 Hamish became the first person to receive the Scottish Award for Excellence in Mountain Culture. Hamish died in 2020, aged 90.

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