✒ 55 THE TALE OF TOM WEIR CONTINUED
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addition, unmanned rescue boxes located in key mountain areas contained basic emergency equipment accessible by hillgoers willing to help those in distress. By 1970 many civilian MRTs had been established but others had yet to form. The Lomond team had been in existence only two years, so it was not surprising that Tom’s climbing partner Leonard Lovat may have been unaware of the Lomond MRT. And to quote Stanley Smith again: ‘It is understandable that the first thought of the members of the SMC would be for themselves to succour their old friend and fellow member after his accident and injury’. Tom, in support of his friends, remarked two months later, ‘It is also nice to look back and remember that the men who did the mountain rescue job so speedily and expertly were all climbing friends.’ The key (and somewhat surprising) fact is that Tom survived the fall. But he was known to have an incredibly strong constitution. By all accounts, when out walking with younger people he would often leave them toiling in his shadow. Even into his late-80s, he was still taking a daily stroll up his local hill. With the accident behind him, Tom developed a strong connection with mountain rescue and would often attend fundraising and PR events held by the Lomond team. He was always happy to have a blether with team members and the public at large. There’s no doubt he was all ears for a tasty snippet of information to flavour his next article for The Scots Magazine ! Which takes me back to our chance meeting on the Cobbler in 1986. The students and I had parked our car at Succoth and chose to climb via the track which follows the fall line — a steep relic from the days when the Sloy dam was built in the 1950s. After a few minutes, we passed Tom and his pals. Keen to reach the start of our climb we moved off at full speed with little time for a blether. After a few minutes, sweating and exhausted, we needed a rest. Tom and his pals passed by, chatting away and looking quite relaxed. But after a very short break we shot off once again. We passed Tom’s group without a sideways glance and strode off into the distance. By the time we reached the Narnain Boulders halfway up the mountain, we felt Tom would be far behind. Wrong! Just a few minutes later, we heard his unmistakable voice. ‘Aigh, you boys must be fit.’ He was correct but we certainly didn’t feel it. Anyway, this ‘tortoise and hare’ sequence continued for the remaining ascent and even though we arrived at the summit col before Tom, we were only five minutes ahead. More important, he and his pals had not broken sweat and had blethered all the way. In contrast, myself and the two students were knackered and in no physical shape to begin the climb. This was a lesson that had a huge impact and taught me not only about the value of pacing but also the gift of enjoying the mountains. Tom was all for the process and the experience and not simply the end game. He made this point repeatedly in his TV programmes and writings. In one of his Scots Magazine columns, he commented that ‘climbing a hill is such a complete thing. You get up on the remote tops and then return to the haunts of men and wildlife. I get more and more pleasure from not going to the top, but from exploring some hitherto unnoticed feature of the mountain — a gully, or a vegetatious rock face with alpine plants or a possible eagle nest site.’ And when interviewed for the 1980s TV series ‘The Munro Show’ he noted that ‘people are doing the Munros today faster and faster. Well, I find that difficult to comprehend. I believe the Munros should last you forever. When you climb a Munro, you should make a friend of it and see it in every season of the year.’ Interestingly, he was not the least bit interested in ‘tick lists’. He commented that if he did the Munros then it would be an accident. ‘I wish to be remembered as the man who didn’t do the Munros’. When he passed away at the grand age of 91 years, he had climbed all but five! ✪
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FIND US AT: MOUNTAIN.RESCUE.ORG.UK WINTER 2021 MOUNTAIN RESCUE MAGAZINE
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