Legendary mountaineer Hamish MacInnes’ legacy donated to trust

A legendary mountaineer and inventor’s £446,000 estate has been donated to the Scottish Mountaineering Trust (SMT) charity.

Hamish MacInnes, who was nicknamed the Fox of Glencoe, died in November 2020 at the age of 90.

Mr MacInnes, who was born in Gatehouse of Fleet and based himself in Glen Coe, climbed the Matterhorn in the Alps when he was just 16.

He went on to found mountain rescue teams, write books on mountaineering and is credited with inventing climbing’s first all-metal ice axe and a rescue stretcher.

SMT funds mountain skills training, footpath improvements and mountain hut renovations.

It also supports projects for young people and socially disadvantaged communities.

The trust has donated almost £2m to individuals and organisations since 1990.

Chairman David Broadhead said: “We are delighted that the MacInnes trustees have decided to pass Hamish’s legacy to the SMT.

“We recognise that this is a big responsibility, as Hamish was a complete individual steering his own course through life, and the SMT will ensure that his values and memory will live on through the projects we support.”

Mr MacInnes was nicknamed the Fox of Glencoe due to his “cunning as a mountaineer”.

He had extensive experience and knowledge of climbing.

He was involved in the founding of Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team – leading the team for many years – as well as the Search and Rescue Dog Association and the setting up of the Scottish Avalanche Information Service.

In the 1970s, Mr MacInnes was an adviser on Clint Eastwood’s film The Eiger Sanction and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, as well as The Mission, starring Robert De Niro, in the 1980s.

His design for a stretcher has been used by rescue teams, and military special forces, all over the world.

The all-metal ice axe, which he made in a shed attached to his house in the 1960s, replaced tools with wooden shafts that could snap when under pressure, such as during a fall while climbing on ice or snow.