I served as an Officer in the Engineering Branch of the RAF for 20 years between 1975 and 1995. My first posting after commissioning was to RAF Kinloss, where the Admin Wing noted from my records that I was a qualified and experienced mountaineer, and immediately made me Deputy Officer-Commanding the RAF Kinloss Mountain Rescue Team. This enabled me to join the team on all weekends when I was free, going to a multitude of different locations in the Scottish highlands. A finer, fitter and friendlier bunch of mountaineers, I have never found anywhere, they were excellent company.
On both Saturdays and Sundays we split up into groups and headed off to bag Munros. I know I climbed a lot of Munros with them, but I carelessly never logged them, so when a decade later, living in England, I decided to climb all of the 511 Scottish Munros and Tops, I had to start again from scratch. That’s life!
I was able to make a positive contribution to the Team, since as a life-long teetotaler, I became the duty minibus driver every Saturday evening, when we drove from that weekend's campsite to a pub and back.
The most significant thing that the Mountain Rescue Team failed to do, was to brainwash me into never climbing Scottish mountains in a smaller party size than four, undoubtedly dictated by higher authority. When I look back on my log of the 511 Scottish Munros and Tops, 48% were soloed, and since this took place before the current reliance on GPS navigation devices, it relied completely on maps and a compass. I have to say that the finest way to hone map-reading skills is definitely to solo Munros, navigating with a map and compass. But I must admit, however, that I always chose occasions with excellent weather forecasts and good visibility, which are easy to choose if you are soloing.
I joined RAFMA as soon as I joined the RAF, and enjoyed taking part in a lot of mountaineering events with fellow RAFMA members in the UK, and several Joint Services Alpine Meets (JSAMs). It was on a JSAM that I led an unguided RAF party up Mont Blanc on the 31st of July 1980.
It was also on a RAFMA expedition in 1992 held in the Bolivian Andes, that I relegated Mont Blanc to become merely my 13th highest summit.
I spent 6 years as RAFMA’s Treasurer, taking over a hand-written cash-book and hand-written ledgers, together with a membership database consisting of a card index file. I computerized everything. I subsequently served as RAFMA’s Chairman for 3 years.
The JSAT scheme provides training in a wide range of adventurous activities, freely available to all at no cost, and with none of the time taken on the courses coming out of one’s annual leave entitlement. I made the most of these opportunities, qualifying as listed below:
I left the RAF with a wealth of adventure training qualifications that I wanted to further amortize, so I decided to join the Cadet Forces. I chose the Army Cadets over the Air Cadets or Sea Cadets since I correctly deduced that they would be more interested in mountaineering.
I became a member of the ACF County Headquarters staff with the rank of Captain.
Army Cadets, boys and girls in the secondary school age range 12 to 17, were a delight to work with. They knew that if they stepped out of line they would be thrown out, so they were always on their best behavior. On two separate occasions cadets came up to me and said that the thing they enjoyed most was the discipline that we enforced, discipline that they said the never received at home or at school, and which they very much enjoyed. I considered this a sad reflection on today’s society.
I occasionally taught rock climbing to a team of 6 cadets at a time on Stanage Edge in the Peak District, setting up 3 adjacent running belays on the top of the crag and then supervising 3 cadets at the foot of the crag who were belaying the 3 who were climbing to the top, before being subsequently lowered, and the party switching roles. On one occasion, after we had finished for the day, I gathered the cadets together at the foot of the crag and we loaded our rucksacks before descending to our minibus. In a stern voice I warned them that they must not run down to the minibus, since if anyone fell with a loaded rucksack they could sustain injuries, and I would need the rest of the party to subsequently testify that I had given them this order. After receiving a series of “Yes Sir” responses, I picked up my own rucksack, securely fixed it in place on my back, and then ran down to the minibus as fast as I could. The cadets were only momentarily nonplussed before whooping with delight and charging down behind me. When dealing with teenagers psychology is very important.
One role that I filled at County Headquarters was that of Officer-in-charge of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme for the county. It was with the DoE Gold Expeditions that I became personally involved. If I had a small team of 4 cadets wishing to carry out a Gold Expedition, I would steer them towards choosing a 4-day route of their own choice in the Scottish highlands. I would drive them there in an ACF minibus and leave them to get on with their chosen route. I would solo backpack for those 4 days, keeping a very distant eye on them without them seeing me, to ensure that all was well, which is always was. Once they had pitched their tents each night, I would briefly stop by to check that there were no problems.
Return to the Website Index