Mountain Clients

A Millennium Epitaph to clients of the Association of British Mountain Guides
1988 – 2010

I have mentioned elsewhere in this site, a letter published on behalf of the Association of British Mountain Guides in Climber magazine in 1988, it includes the following concerns:

“A client who decides to employ a guide expects the very highest professional service from someone who has over many years gained considerable experience and skill in the mountains in all conditions… We are therefore very concerned that any member of the public is subjected to an inferior and probably dangerous service by someone who may call himself a mountain guide… Let us know if you know of any bogus guides – we will investigate…”

[Likewise, please let me know if you have had a narrow escape whilst with a 'qualified professional' we have many such stories.]

It is possible that some of the deceased BMG/UIAGM/IFMGA/AMI clients in the following roll-call were enticed by that 1988 letter and by subsequent BMG / UIAGM / IFMGA/AMI advertising offering guarantees of safety or ‘security’:

Mr G. Hedley 1990, Phil Davies 1992, Willie Dunnachie 1992, Douglas Gaines 1992, Dr H. Kerr 1994

Emma Ray 1998** Paul Hopkins 1998** Matthew Lewis 1998** Ian Edwards 1998** Michael Matthews 1999,

Julie Colverd 2004, Robert Pritchard 2010, Peter Kinloch 2010

Because the full details of other fatalities and serious injuries to BMG clients are not known (the information is not forthcoming), they could not be included here but they will be if that information is ever made public. Many injuries, serious injuries and some fatalities are included in the Appendix of the book by Blyth White: “A Chance in a Million”.

The true number of fatalities to BMG clients at the two supposed Elite Mountain Centres at Glenmore Lodge and Plas-y-Brenin is also not known. Blyth White’s book goes some way in showing the actual [in]competence of some members of the BMG when it comes to client care.

My intention in presenting this information is not to upset anyone who may have lost a relative or a friend whilst climbing with ‘qualified’ guides/instructors. My principal hope is that in pursuing the facts of the various cases the ongoing catalogue of death to mountain clients can be drastically reduced or even stopped.

Since 1988 it is my view that mountain clients have been denied choice in their search for a safe guide/ instructor by the machinations of the British Mountaineering Council and the BMG/IFMGA. It appears to be their intention that guides/instructors with vast experience and the desired qualities should be put out of work and be denied the opportunity to make their living – contrary to the comments, guidelines in Langmuirs original outdoor pursuit book. BMG guides have, as required, employed in Europe ‘none qualified’ instructors guides when it has suited them.

**Their BMG guide went on to become the – Mountain Safety Officer for Scotland…

Two of Willie Dunnachie’s sons have made contact with mountainclients, Eddie in 2005 and William in 2009: ‘Our family was left in dire straights after the 1992 Eiger accident…’, wrote William who’s father died along with two other British Mountain Guide (BMG) clients on the West Flank of the Eiger in 1992 (see Eiger Sanction).

11 UIAGM/IFMGA guides have been killed in mountain accidents since November, 2008 the fate of their clients, is as yet, unknown. And yet – on the 1st July,2004: The then secretary of the BMG stated that – “It is very rare for a mountain guide to be killed…” Really!