Hamish MacInnes

Michael Palin on “Inspirational Eccentricity”

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

 

By Michael Palin

This weekend two people who I admired very much died. Jan Morris and Hamish MacInnes. Both were in their 90’s, both had lived quite extraordinary lives, and I was fortunate enough to spend some time with both of them. Jan Morris was the author of Venice, one of the best travel books I ever read. It made me want to go to Venice and when I went there, with Helen, in 1967, it made being there even better.

Before she underwent gender reassignment (or ‘changed sex’ as Jan always called it) she was James Morris, the reporter for the Times on the Everest expedition of 1953, and it was he who not only broke the story of Hillary and Tensing’s success, but made sure the news got through on the day of the Queen’s coronation. Continue reading →

Climber’s ‘final tour’ of his beloved Glen Coe

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Mountaineer
the Fox of Glencoe

 

The world-renowned mountaineer and inventor Dr Hamish MacInnes, who died this week, aged 90, is to be taken on a “final tour” of his beloved Glen Coe.

Mr MacInnes, who was born in Gatehouse of Fleet in Dumfries and Galloway, moved to the glen in 1959.

A hearse carrying his coffin, which will have two crossed ice axes on top, will pass through Glencoe village and then Glen Coe on 4 December.

Dr MacInnes is to be cremated in a private ceremony in Glasgow.

During the journey the hearse will stop briefly outside Glencoe’s David Cooper’s Coffee Shop, where Dr MacInnes was a regular for many years and could be found sat a table with a pot of tea “with only a very weak passing of a tea bag,” according to friends.

The hearse will then pause at Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team centre – Dr MacInnes founded the team and was a former team leader – and finally outside his home in Glen Coe before heading for Glasgow.

Dr MacInnes climbed the Matterhorn in the Alps when he was just 16 and went on to found mountain rescue teams, lead expeditions and write books on mountaineering.

Dr MacInnes is credited with inventing climbing’s first all-metal ice axe and a rescue stretcher. Continue reading →