meeting a legend

October 6, 2007 on 6:56 pm | In Ski Mountaineering | 1 Comment

I am very happy to be back in Scotland after my summer/winter in New Zealand. As soon as I got home I got out my mountina bike and took it for a spin up Glen Einich. I love it up there and it is definitely on eof my favourite places to go mountain biking. There are two route options on the way up, before you get to the main river crossing. You can either take the high road or the low road alongside the river. The high road takes you up a pretty steep climb for around 15 to 20 mins but gives you by far the best views up the glen and back down towards the Spey Valley. I take the high road every time. Taking the high road also means you get to wizz down the steep hill before the high road runs back into the low road at the river side. Great fun indeed. I nver tire of the remoteness of Glen Einich and can definitely see why people from all over the world love to come hill walking and climbing in the Cairngorms. The last week i was in New Zealand I did an avalanche awareness course which was led by legendary NZ mountaineer, Bill Atkinson. he was telling me how he would love to come to Scotland to walk and climb in the mountains there and that he has a lot of respect for the many great climbers and mountaineeers that have come out of Scotland and the North of England.

Bill proved to be one of the most interesting chararacters I have ever met and the avalache course was extremely interesting. We learnt about all aspecs of avalanche danger and snow analysis from slope access and route finding to slope angle, aspect, terrain and weather. As well as in the field observations, we spent three days int he classroom pouring over weather charts and pics of snow, avalanche phenomenon and different snow crystals. All throughout the course Bill told us stories from his many mounaineering experiences. He had been in many life or death situations in the mountians and had lost many close friends in tragic mountain accidents. One of his closest friends and climbing partners was the legendary Rob Hall who was killed in a particulary nasy storm on Everest in may 1996 along with 8 other people. Like Bill, Rob was a mountian guide and had made a very successful living from guiding clients on high altitude ascents including Mt Everest. He ran one of the tightest ships as far as guiding companies go but was still caught out in the unforgiving ‘death zone’ above 8000m on Everest. Bill’s many stories peaked my curiosity a lot and after the course was finished I started to research his career. He has many first ascents of mountains both in New Zealand and all over the world and a wealth of experience. I felt privaledged to have had him as my course leader.

On researching Bill I also found many climbiing and mountaineering stories from the Scottish hills. There is a whole legacy of mountaineering and climbing literature from Scotland that is well worth a read and also a whole legacy of Scottish ‘Bills’ with stories to tell. I am planning to do a few more mountain safety courses in Scotland in the next few months and I hope that I get to meet some of these characters.

Lesley McKenna
http://www.chunkyknit.com
Professional snowboarder, film maker and ambassador for Visitscotland. All sorts of outdoor sports from skiing to mountain biking and now mixes her time on the Snowboard World Cup Tour with time in Scotland doing these sports.