Dennis Morrod

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

DennisStarted climbing, soloing climbs in the Peak District in **nailed-boots in 1951 walking from Newton Heath, Manchester to Greenfield to climb for the day, then walking the ten miles back in the evening – every Sunday. Once a month I extending that walk from Wemberry to Laddow and on to Shining Clough and back to Manchester via the same route – just to climb. In the years after leaving the Royal Marines (1959-65 I joined-up for cliff-leader – mountain cadre not, heavy weapons) I went on to climb many classic climbs including some first ascents***. Never understood why a climber would want 500 – 1,000 first ascents to his name given the finite amount of virgin rock available to future climbers in the UK. Those were the days: Jim Perrin, Climber Magazine, April, 2001: ’For me, all this pleasure of memory was carrying a troubled alternative discourse from the present day. I’d just been talking to a good friend of mine about what we’d been doing of late. She’d been up to Froggatt with her husband, and had wanted to climb – Valkyrie. There was a party on it, top-roping. She,d asked, and it would have been politely, if they’d be long. “All day, if we effing want”, had come the reply. Proprietorialism… 

Why, in a climbing age replete with nylon ropes, harnesses, sticky rubber boots, Friends, Rocks, chalk, all of which make climbing easier, safer and more comfortable, would anyone want to deny themselves the pleasure, the thrill, the journey, the discovery of leading a route like – Valkyrie? Why would anyone want to top-rope a route that, for at least the first decade of my climbing life, was graded no more than Very severe? If these people can’t lead it, why don’t they go elsewhere and come back with a bit more confidence. leading is a finer and more complete experience. So why, on the outcrops and little crags, do we tolerate this prevalent ethos of throwing the rope down and hogging and dangling daylong. Which aspect of proprietorialism should prevail – the one that honours and upholds the best traditions of the sport, or the one that debases it, is merely acquisitive, reduces it to the lowest common denominator’, <Jim Perrin. Why don’t they go and take-up golf and then, when they find the going difficult, go and damage the greens by digging holes where the game will be made much easier – you would get your hands cut-off.  

For instance, it is not known if Black Panther (now being over-bolted at the Cheesewring Quary, Cornwall; bolts that will be chopped when the retro-bolting is complete ) had a second ascent before the bolts started to appear.?

My alpine climbing started in Chamonix (French Alps) in 1958, and by 1993 I had climbed many of the classic, alpine routes. Although two attempts on the North Face of the Eiger were thwarted by bad weather, I have made 132 ascents of Mont Blanc. I visited Mount Kenya, East Africa, as early as 1960 and my first visit to the summit of Kilimanjaro in 1963. Since then, I have made seven ascents of Mt Kenya and thirty two ascents of Mount Kilimanjaro. I have visited; climbed on Aconcagua twice and also Mt McKinley where I had to extract a climber and his pulk (fully loaded sledge) from one of the numerous, bottomless crevasses.

Having climbed in many parts of the world, I am appalled by the use of expansion bolts in   un quarried rock and agree with Reinhold Messner that climbers who carry bolts; are carrying their courage in the lid of their their rucksacks. I also believe that potential new climbs should be left for a better, future (ground-up) climber rather than practising for an ascent of these potential climbs with the use of a top-rope. I have never under stood why a climber needs 1,000 new routes to their name with no consideration for future climbers. Why, a climber needs so many routes to his name at Lands End, many of them ‘damaged’.?

In 1985 Dennis Gray, the then general secretary of the British Mountaineering Council (BMC), offered to give full publicity to any problems (as a professional climber/guide) that I might have in the future. There have been no problems. My safety record as a guide/instructor has been, and I hope will to be, exemplary. The BMC, never made the same offer – of adverse publicity – to the association of  British Mountain Guides (BMG) with that organisations lack, of a perfect safety record.

My alpine, rock climbing courses were very successful (regardless of the machinations of the BMC/BMG). My clients (1966 – ) and I, have brought-in 32 climbers who had over extended themselves in the Alps only one of whom, subsequently died. So successful were the alpine courses, that Dr Ott of the American Collage, Leysin, invited me to live-in and use the college facilities for my summer alpine courses in Switzerland when the college was closed, its students away on summer vacation. Every East African course (Mount Kenya, Point Lenana and Mt Kilimanjaro then a safari to Ngorongoro Crater) was successful (well, as successful as anything involving the circus surrounding Kili can ever be) making 32 ascents of Lenana and Uhuru Peak since 1963.

Made first ascent of Kilimanjaro whilst touring Tanganyica. The Tangayican army revolted in 1963 and 42 Commando,s Royal Marines where sent from Plymouth, UK. to join 45 Commando. After disarming the military; military out-posts, an ascent of Kili (the mountain was empty) was made.

In 1983, climbed the North face of the Tour Ronde (alternate-leads) with the famous disabled climber,  Norman Croucher OBE, the first time an alpine North face had been climbed by a double-leg amputee.

**The rudimentory climbing equipment was purchaced from Brigham’s at Harperhay, Manchester, over-time the boots self-nailed with small tricouni plates along with the finest hemp rope and slings – steel karabiners and mild-steel pitons. Unqualified as we were, Arnold and I were often asked to display our climbing equipment to different classes by the Sports teacher. Two twelve year olds pulled the film the ‘Mountain’ staring Spencer Tracy – to pieces and thought the First Ascent of Everest teams (in 1953) to be – over-dressed.  ***On sight: The purest form of ascent which is conducted from the ground up, with no prior knowledge of moves or protection (apart from “standard” guidebook info) and in which no falls or rests on gear are taken. Gear; protection placed on lead. Can’t climb? Bolt! Bolting being the brave new world of climbing’s preferred method. Finally, the damming Maestri bolts are being removed from Cerro Torre (Jan, 2012) attention might now be turned to the Casarotto Pillar as an outstanding route on Fitzroy, first ascent solo by a true Meistro - Renato Casarotti in 1979

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Avalanche

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

Whoever exposes himself and his client to the dangers of an avalanche … is very stupid indeed

“Serious soul-searching is going on amongst mountaineers after the tragic avalanche in Scotland on the 28 December, 1998.” Weekend Telegraph, March 20 1999.

Since the four young Venture Scouts who died (in consolidating snow and ice) on Aonach Mor in December 1998 were under the instruction and care of a BMG guide, one question in particular has dominated discussion. Are novice climbers safe in the hands of professional trainers and guides?

Andre Roche’s comment at the heading to this section indicates his clear view that anyone who exposes his clients to the dangers of an avalanche is very stupid indeed.

I recollect a number of fatal accidents involving avalanches; one took the life of a BMG/UIAGM guide called Paul Potter in 1996; he had unroped from his client. The other took the lives of four BMG clients on Aonach Mor in December 1998. In both tragedies, there was a grade 3 avalanche warning posted in each area. The highest grade of avalanche risk is grade 5.

Another Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) states that such accidents are inevitable.

The FAI into the death of Dr Katherine Herd in an avalanche on Liathach reiterated the principle that accidents will always happen in climbing. The report has been welcomed (by some) as “another excellent legal decision” for guides. The fatal accident report came soon after the ‘Triumph for Common Sense’ letter from Stephen Venables (q.v.) following on from the verdict in the Pope v Cuthbertson court case (q.v.) when the injured client lost his case in part because of the technical (expert) witnesses (including the now Chief Executive of Plas-y-Brenin (PyB)) arrayed against him.

Dr Herd died from injuries received when she and three other climbers were avalanched from Trotter’s Gully in January 1994. At the time, she was taking part in a course run by British Mountain Guide, Martin Moran, from his mountaineering school at Strathcarron.

In his report, Sheriff Principal Douglas Risk stated:
“The possibility of avalanche can never be totally excluded”
That is certainly the case when clients are taken in to the mountains with grade 3 avalanche risk or greater.

Avalanche expert T. Rupar, a member of the Scottish Avalanche Information Service, holds quite robust and explicit views on the question of avalanche victims:
“… it is not too difficult to understand why the less experienced become avalanche statistics, but one can only conclude that the ‘experienced’ victims are either badly myopic, stupid, suicidally gung-ho, English, or a dangerous mix of some or all of these.”

The most usual (and basic) mistake made by those who become involved in an avalanche is not waiting at least 48 hours after the last fall of snow before venturing onto avalanche-prone snow slopes. Ignoring avalanche warnings is another reason that avalanches are triggered. Low angled slopes give the highest avalanche danger. I believe that basic mistakes regarding the possibility of an avalanche have killed a number of the BMG/IFMGA clients in avoidable accidents to date.

The perceived wisdom tells us that Glenmore Lodge and Plas-y-Brenin are “pillars of learning”. I dispute that wisdom. Let us consider the evidence:

1969: 19th February Clients, members of a Glenmore Lodge winter survival course, were taken into avalanche conditions on the West side of Coire Cas and unsurprisingly avalanched. They were rescued by other climbers and a ski patrol. Six remained in hospital; two were seriously injured.

1973: 19th December Glenmore Lodge instructor Peter Boardman was injured when caught in an avalanche in Alladin’s Couloir, Coire an t-Sneachda.

1976: 12th March Glenmore Lodge party (Party one) was avalanched on Goat track, Coire an t-Sneachda. There were numerous injuries.

1976: 12th March Another Glenmore Lodge party that was on the way to rescue Party one were themselves avalanched in Coire an Lochain near the col on Fiacaill a’ Choire an t-Sneachda. Six members were injured and one died in hospital.

1981: 11th February Six climbers from Plas-y-Brenin were avalanched in Cinderella Gully. Two instructors sustained broken legs and two more people [clients?] were also injured.

1982: 15th February Three climbers from Plas-y-Brenin were avalanched in Raeburn’s Gully on Creag Meagaidh. All were injured, one with a broken leg.

1986: 20th March A Glenmore Lodge instructor was avalanched below Garbh Uisge Beag while searching for missing party members. There were 153 mph gusts of wind on Cairngorm summit. Three others in the party were also carried away by the avalanche. The Glenmore Lodge leader received leg injuries.

1986: 30th December A Glenmore Lodge instructor was avalanched near Jacob’s Ladder whilst soloing above his students (clients). He fell 130 metres breaking his pelvis and scapula. His party were rescued by another Glenmore Lodge team and an RAF helicopter.   Now a personal tale:

In 1979, a client on a three-month course at Plas-y-Brenin (the course cost £1,000) injured a knee whilst approaching the end of the Cuillin Ridge Traverse on Skye. As he hobbled painfully down into the valley towards Sligachan, into the coming night, he watched as the rest of the party, including the Plas-y-Brenin guide/instructor, disappeared into the gloom and the growing darkness. The client, fortunately, made it to the road but not thanks to Plas-y-Brenin. That client was me!

I recite these items as some examples of “client care 2, which clients have suffered at the hands of the two, BMG run, Elite Mountain Centres; The supposed Centres of Excellence. The “Pillars of Learning”!

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Rigorous and Robust Rules

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

“The challenge” said Iain Peter “is that it’s not just about having rigorous and robust rules – it’s in making people stick to them”. Iain Peter is the Chief Executive of Plas-y_Brenin (that Pillar of Learning) in North Wales.

Just what are these rigorous and robust rules, and where do they emanate from?

It was Plas-y-Brenin (PyB) that hosted the ‘Protect and Survive’ seminar, the details of which were published in the January 1989 issue of High (the official magazine of the BMC) along with a full page colour photograph. The seminar, which was heavily attended by ‘official’ mountain guides and instructors, discussed the most up to date use of ice axes and crampons and other pieces of modern ice climbing/winter mountaineering protection.

The full-page colour picture shows two ice climbers high on a mountain face belayed to a single, poorly placed, ice screw. Also in the picture, but not being employed in the belay, are two ice axes.

Ironically, 18 months later, a member of the Association of British Mountain Guides (BMG) who may well have attended the “Protect and Survive” seminar at PyB, climbed away from his client high on a North face in the French Alps, belayed by a single ice screw. When the guide fell, the dangerous belay failed and he dragged his client to his death. The guide survived. This incident resulted in the case of Hedley v Cuthbertson (q.v.)

Some rigorous and robust rules are highlighted below:

Robust Rule No 1: the guide always descends behind the client so that he can control any slip or fall.

Mike Rheinbereger (client) was left at the top of the Second Step on Everest’s North Ridge by his guide, who had descended the Step ahead of him, and thus descended before him. Mike was unable to descend; he was snow-blind, weak and confused. As a result he was left and abandoned by his guide. Had the guide sent Rheinbereger down the Step first, lowering him if necessary, then it is possible that Mike would not have been left to die alone in such a terrible condition; a diabolical, and in my view, avoidable situation.

On 13th May 1999, a client of a commercial expedition company – OTT (which is a BMG and IGO 8000 member), was left on the summit slopes of Everest by his guide. Had the guide been descending behind the client, he would not have lost contact with the client. In my opinion, the guide should have been roped to the client but he was not.

In both cases, the expeditions that had brought these clients to the upper slopes of Everest did not have the means to effect a rescue. In Rheinberger’s case, the expedition leader, over the radio, told the guide to descend and leave the client behind. That disgraceful episode was in my view totally avoidable.

Three clients of an Association of British Mountain Guides member were killed in a fall down the West Flank of the Eiger in 1992. Their guide was descending first, not last, and in the ensuing fall by the last client the guide was not able to stop the falling clients.

Your guide must always descend last. This is Rule No 1.

Robust Rule No 2: always wear a helmet and use ice axe and crampons on any glacier.

Jane Bussman wrote an article in the Daily Mail after her failed attempt on Mont Blanc. She was on a BMG Jagged Globe alpine course. Several of her comments in the article were alarming, bearing in mind that she was a client, but it was the photograph that accompanied the article that really caught my attention. Jane is pictured, ice axe strapped safely onto her rucksack, approaching a huge crevasse with trekking poles as she walks on a wet glacier. Her safety helmet is not on her head. I guess it was tucked safely away inside her rucksack!

For several years now, I have been collecting pictorial evidence of ‘qualified’ guides leading their clients across wet glaciers. The guide and client both supporting themselves with ski-sticks

On a dry glacier most of the crevasses are evident, but there are still huge ‘chambers’ hidden under thin sheets of ice. On a wet glacier, the vast majority of crevasses are hidden with or by a layer of snow. The ice-axe for self-arrest is therefore vital when travelling across any glacier.

Fall into a crevasse whilst not wearing a helmet and you can be severely injured. Who looks after the ‘qualified’ guide’s client when the guide (many of whom disdain the wearing of helmets when walking on glaciers) is injured or killed? It has happened!

In 1992, I was called to a dangerous situation on the Mer du Glace above Chamonix whilst practising crevasse rescue with some clients. We were hailed from a distance by a lone woman standing on the flat ice. Walking across to her, she pointed into a crevasse in front of her. In the bottom of it was the crumpled figure of a man. He had tripped over his own crampons and fallen headfirst into the twenty-foot crevasse. He was jammed, where the crevasse narrowed, his neck almost twisted back-to-front and he was very badly lacerated. I effected his rescue and took him back to Montenvers. His injuries would have been much less if only he had been wearing a helmet but he was not. His ice axe? This was not fixed to his wrist by a loop and so disappeared into the narrow almost bottomless crevasse. He was a very lucky man.

Robust Rule No 3… I could fill a web site with robust rules that have been broken time and time again by qualified guides who are qualified to strict safety criteria………………….

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Die Officially

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

Why chance everything on anything less? Many have! Whilst searching the Internet, many potential mountain clients will see and read about “official” mountain guides, with UIAGM/BMG/IFMGA-qualifications. What they will not see and read about, is the number of BMG/UIAGM/IFMGA clients who have been killed and seriously injured whilst their guides survived (apart from Paul Potter who had unroped from his client). The guides have then continued in their chosen career. John Barry was apparently,  ”thrown out” of the Association after losing 3 young clients on the West Face of the Eiger in 1992 being reinstated after a period of being (according to the BMG web site at the time) “an aspirant guide”. The oldest aspirant guide ever one assumes! Due to a ‘cone-of-silence’ the exact details are hard to establish.

Potential clients will not be aware that the one widow who finally received compensation for the loss of her husband (covered by BMC insurance), a client of the BMG, waited 7 years to receive the compensation, bringing up alone her young son, a son who his father never saw. At the time of her husband’s death, BMG advertising: “The Association has a comprehensive insurance scheme in operation, and a 70-strong membership of highly experienced mountaineers. When answering adverts displaying either of our two logos, you can be sure of ADVENTURE WITH SECURITY. Why chance everything on anything less?”

This reminds me of some words of Reinhold Messner from the inspirational address he gave to the Alpine Club Symposium held at Sheffield Hallam University in 1999. Whilst Messner’s words were directed primarily at commercial operators on the 8000 metre peaks, his words are just as apposite in a more general context.

“….. mountains are dangerous places”. What right has anyone to advertise “security” in this context, particularly members of an organisation which has regularly lost clients to (in my view avoidable) accidents certainly since 1988; in recent years.

According to my records (and my investigation continues), until very recently it was very rare for a UIAGM/IFMGA guide to be killed alongside his client. In the vast majority of  occasions when a client has been killed, the guide has survived. Those guides, in the main, are still working to this day qualified as they are supposed to be: in all aspects of client care.
Apart from the comments and the judgement of Mr Justice Dyson in 1997, there has never been any ‘official’ word of condemnation regarding what are in my view these avoidable, fatal accidents. Certainly not from the governing body (as it now calls itself) of climbing and mountaineering the British Mountaineering Council (BMC) or The Sports Council, now Sport England (quango).

On the contrary, even though the BMG have ‘lost’ so many clients, the Sports Council (with the support of the BMC) after offering out to tender the management lease of Plas-y-Brenin (PYB – the multi-million pound outdoor centre at Capel Curig, North Wales) under an EC Directive to the highest bidder in pounds Sterling by October 1996, gave away PyB to the BMC/BMG etc. They quickly formed the so-called Mountain Training Trust and against every aspect of the EC Directive received PyB for a nominal sum, along with an annual £450,000 grant (£6.5million to date with which to compete on the open market that is Outdoor Pursuits).

In my opinion, no other organisation offering climbing and outdoor pursuit courses with such a safety record or, lack of one, would have been given the management lease of PyB. On the contrary, they would have been hounded out of business (many were).

You could become a statistic. Think very carefully when you choose to engage the services of a BMG/UIAGM/IFMGA mountain guide. Eleven have been killed (2009/2010) and little is known as to the fate of their clients.

Wear helmets.

As pleasant as the picture below may seem [picture to be reinstated] the climber could receive severe head injuries in the event of a fall. [If you have at least half a brain, protect it with a helmet]. The 1,000ft rock face above her is notorious for rock fall and loose rock. The following day, when I was climbing at Sella (Spain) another female climber fell from high on a route. She had gathered in enough slack rope to clip the next bolt running belay above her when she slipped and fell. The fall, plus bad belaying by her second, meant that she fell a good 50 feet before hitting the rock next to me, very heavily. She hurt herself, her unhelmeted head just missing the rock.

She was a client on a rock-climbing course with the National Adventure Centre (the principal venue for rock climbing in Ireland), Tiglin, based in Wicklow, Southern Ireland.

It is also with “official blessing” that the young lady above is climbing whilst not wearing a helmet. Many adverts emanating from the so-called governing body of mountaineering and climbing, the British Mountaineering Council, show rock climbers not wearing protective helmets.

Advertising from Tiglin in a specialist magazine also shows rock climbers not wearing helmets. I call this enticement.

I always climb with a helmet. At Les Gaillands in Chamonix, I am often asked by the local climbers:

“Monsieur, pour quoi le casque?” Why the helmet?

My answer: “Monsieur, pour quoi les chausseures?” Why are you wearing boots? Why are you not climbing bare-footed?

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Millenium Epitaph

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

A Millennium Epitaph to clients of BMG/UIAGM/IFMGA Mountain Guides 1988 – 2011 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/7535938/British-solicitor-killed-in-Italian-avalanche.html British Mountain Guide (BMG) Jon Bracey and clients… http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local-west-yorkshire-news/2011/11/24/inquest-hears-the-moment-killer-avalanche-struck-and-swept-away-huddersfield-man-james-ryan-86081-29831712/

 http://pistehors.com/news/ski/comments/year-of-hard-knocks

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; the following unfulfilled guarantees:

“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…” BMG letter/advertising.

[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: North face Tour Ronde. Phil Davies 1992, Willie Dunnachie 1992, Douglas Gaines 1992, West Flank of the Eiger 

Dr K. Herd: 1994: Scottish avalanche

Emma Ray 1998** Paul Hopkins 1998** Matthew Lewis 1998** Ian Edwards 1998** 

Michael Matthews 1999: lost on Mount Everest 

Julie Colverd 2004,

Robert Pritchard 2010, Peter Kinloch 2010: Mount Everest

James Ryan, March, 2010 (avalanche)

2011, January: James Whalley, David Robinson

An unknown number are still evident, left by the wayside, on Mount Everest. 

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.

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Misleading Information

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

Mountain Clients are, I believe, being mislead by specialist magazines.

For example, in the January 2002 issue of High Mountain Sport (the official magazine of the British Mountaineering Council) Andy Kilpatrick has written: “Joining the ropes? Forget all that old twaddle about joining your ropes with reef knot and double fishermans – just go for the simple overhand knot”.

If a mountain guide or climbing instructor invites you to abseil from ropes that are tied together with just a simple overhand knot, you can be sure that he/she does not know what they are doing. Ask for your money back. In my view, too many clients of the Association of British Mountain Guides have been killed through basic errors made by these ‘qualified professionals’.

In the November 2000 issue of High Mountain Sport, an article by Joe Simpson was printed in which he castigates press journalists for ‘woefully inaccurate journalism’.

The butt of most of his criticism was the Daily Telegraph, which in a news story made a number of mistakes regarding 3 climbers who fell from the North Wall of the Eiger on the same day in September 2000 during a storm.

The article is aimed solely at press journalists and it makes no distinction between on-the-day news stories and informed investigative reporting about climbing accidents or tragedies.

Unfortunately, there are not many reports on why certain accidents happen, especially when it comes to those involving professional mountain guides and members of the Association of British Mountain Guides (BMG). Apparently, members of the BMG are in a unique position. Despite numerous fatal accidents to their clients, there is seldom any comeback on them when clients are seriously injured or killed. I cannot think of any other profession in the world where a client can be ‘lost’ and the member of that profession does not have to face a judicial inquiry.

In those circumstances, climbing journalists should be encouraged to report all possible details about these incidents so that you, the consumer of guide services, can see (or at least form a view as to) whether the professional climbers have avoided or ignored their responsibilities.

On the contrary, there have been a number of articles by climbing journalists castigating clients for seeking compensation.

It is my view that any incident that affects climbers, mountain clients or otherwise, should receive accurate and informed coverage in specialist magazines. If they do not, good quality information about these incidents is denied to the climbing public whose picture of the guiding profession becomes distorted.

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Are The Guides To Blame?

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

The Lyme Bay Disaster: Pete Kite, the managing director of the Lyme Bay centre where four young people died in a canoeing accident was convicted of ‘corporate manslaughter’ and received a sentence of 3 years in jail (reduced to 2 years by the Appeal Court on 8th February 1996). They rejected his appeal against his conviction. Two years in jail, for being ‘responsible for the circumstances’ leading to the deaths! And yet…

Committee finds British Guide “not at fault”. Climber Magazine: November 1997.

Canoe Centre manager (Lyme Bay Tragedy 1995) is jailed for two years after four clients died and BMG mountain guide who ‘lost four client’ in the Anoch Mor (tragedy 1998) in an ice avalanche gets – promoted to Highland Safety Officer… I hope you can see the anomoly.

Even though a High Court Judge, Mr Justice Dyson, had found the guide to be negligent towards his client in the case of Hedley v Cuthbertson (q.v.), at a meeting in late September 1997, the Professional Standards Committee of the Association of British Mountain Guides found that David ‘Smiler’ Cuthbertson, was ‘not at fault’.

The three-man committee (which according to BMG/UIAGM/IFMGA rules should have sat seven years earlier) (rules eh), was chaired by Professor David Hopkins, Chair of the School of Education at the University of Nottingham and a longstanding BMG guide. The other members seconded for the enquiry were Wales-based climber Nick Banks, an independent (BMG) guide for over 25 years and Pat Littlejohn, Director of the International School of Mountaineering in Leysin. Both men are highly experienced mountaineers. Professor Hopkins decided, given the public interest (the fatal accident remained largely out of the public eye from 1990 to1997) in the case, to appoint an ‘independent’ observer for the hearing, a role fulfilled by Chris Bonington who is a Patron of the BMC.

The decision of the committee meant that David ‘Smiler’ Cuthbertson was able to continue guiding without sanction. Cuthbertson had already worked unhindered from 1990 to 1997.

Competent in all aspects of client care, I think not. Competent in all aspects of guide care – certainly.

Here is another example of a guide not to blame:

According to The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian on 15th December 2000, the BMG guide who took six clients onto the mountain in avalanche conditions on Aonach Mor, Scotland, on the 29th December, 1998, was ‘not to blame’!

But of course this latest Fatal Accident Inquiry has found the guide not at fault. All the other members of the BMG who have ‘lost’ clients were also cleared by the BMG’s Professional Standards Committee. And yet, prior to these four (in my view) avoidable deaths on 29th December 1998 and to date, the BMG were still advertising on their web site: ‘Our members are competent in all aspects of client care’.

During the enquiry, Sheriff Forbes levelled some criticism at the Association of British Mountain Guides, citing conflicting opinions from past and present presidents on whether members should carry mobile phones as “counter-productive” adding that “clear guidance should be given”.

He also suggested that the BMG should investigate a system of check-in and check-out [a basic requirement of all intelligent hill walkers, climbers and mountaineers for many years] with the operators of the Nevis Range ski-lift, so that non-appearance of parties might be noted.

The criticism once again was about basic mistakes by the BMG; mistakes that in my opinion have cost the lives of so many of their clients thus far.

Another FAI into the avoidable death of a woman climber on Liathach in Torridon in January 1994 recently published its report. Dr Katherine Herd died from injuries suffered when she was avalanched from Trotter’s Gully on Liathach. At the time, she was a client on a winter mountaineering course run by Strathcarron-based British Mountain Guide Martin Moran.

The Sherrif Principal, Douglas Risk, concluded that Dr Herd’s death was a misfortune which could: “…not be attributed positively to any human cause”. He emphasised that: “There is always an element of danger in climbing Scottish mountains in winter”. He apparently added: “..the occurrence of an accident does not ipso facto establish that sensible precautions were not taken”.

Kevin Howett, the then National officer of the MCofS commented: “Whilst no one wishes to see any deaths occur in the mountains and Dr Herd’s family have our sincere condolences, the MCofS are heartened by this report… The judgement is a common sense one”.

So, another “Triumph for Common Sense” in the words of Stephen Venables.
It is apparent that the Sheriff was not made aware of advertising put out by the BMG and the BMC prior to this latest avoidable, fatal accident to another mountain client.

“Adventure with Security” was being advertised by the BMG and, according to BMC publications at the time, Mr Moran’s winter courses met strict BMC safety criteria. Whatever they may be!

No, this was not just another accident, it was at least the 13th known fatal accident to a mountain client and in each case, bar one, the guide survived. These were not “overwhelming accidents” and certainly in my view, they were avoidable.

The supposed futility of apportioning blame was dealt a severe blow in 1997 when a BMG guide was found guilty of negligence in the High Court, after the death of his client in 1990. Yes, the clients widow waited – seven years bringing up her baby son alone before finally being compensated for her avoidable loss. My investigations continue. If you have an instance where you feel that your safety was compromised by mountain guides or instructors – let me know.

A final thought in this section: Mountain clients should familiar themselves to a degree with basic climbing techniques from a good book – early climbers were invariably self-taught. Do not rely solely on the “expert”. How does the client know when the guide has lost control? How does the client know that he is stood underneath a massive cornice whilst he practices some activity, a cornice weighing tons, that could and do, collapse without warning. It is a shocked client who is left holding, after having held, the falling guide; holding a dead body until rescue finally arrives – as happen on the Matterhorn in 2009. In 1990, Gerry Hedley after initially holding his guides fall was plucked from the mountain when the single ice-screw to which he had been tied – pulled out. His guide – survived… Gerry’s career as an Art expert - ruined. British guides finding additional funding for their chosen careers whilst the relatives of deceased clients look-on.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

The Most Frequently Asked Questions By Mountain Clients are…

“Whatever happened to – choice?”
“Why, wasn’t I shown that on my last course?”
“Are you a member of the Association of British Mountain Guides?”
“Why not?”
“Do you have a professional qualification from the IFMGA?”
“Why not?”
 “Have you ‘lost’ any clients?”
 “Can I come again?”
So many questions, my favourite being: “Are you a member of the – BMG; the UIAGM; IFMGA?”
The standard reply being (unprintable): No, I would die of embarrassment. So many court-cases; too many Fatal Accident Inquiries no,  our definition of: client care is not the same as the BMG’s. And anyway, cartel’s are illegal on main land Europe. Especially, professional bodies who take; use clients hard earned holiday money and then, loose the client. The money, never repaid…
“Why do the BMG/BMC close ranks after each and every climbing accident involving ‘one of their own’ and yet, go ‘public’ when a private organisation (The Scouts Association for example) has a similar problem?”
The next most frequently asked questions are: about choice; the freedom to choose especially, when personal safety is at stake: ‘Graham, is a fine, up standing, virile, highly recommended and lets face it; safe – independent mountain guide. So why the hell, did I have too employ – Gerald?’ Gerald, turned out to be the kind of ‘qualified’ weed that grows…
“Why didn’t the BMC or The Sports Council stop false BMG advertising as removed by the Advertising Stansards Authority – at the request of the Association of Mountain Clients in 1997 – why?”
Why, has the British Mountaineering Council never, supported a BMG client after an avoidable accident?
Why, as the supposed governming body of climbing, does  the BMC  not advocate the wearing of correct, climbing safety equipment?
Why, did/does the BMC support financially the – BMG whilst also supporting that autonomous organisation with office space and advertising against, the best interests of – mountain clients?
So many questions and no – answers…
‘How to Choose a Mountain Guide?’
That question was posed by the American Mountain Guides Association
http://www.amga.com/guides/index.htm
‘Most people expect formal training of a doctor or lawyer. Shouldn’t you ask the same from your guides?’
The British Medical Association (BMA) has been the biggest op-poser of the British National Health Service (NHS) since its conception and yet, the BMA has ensured that it – has ‘controlled’ the NHS ever since. The NHS today (2001) is in a mess, (£millions of pounds wasted, most of it pocketed by – members of the BMA) patients (clients) dying needlessly in ever growing numbers; clients left in hospital corridors (dying) on trollies for hours because there are not enough beds.
The less said about – lawyers the better: http://www.cameronlaw.com/jokes/Jokes about the legal profession would fill many web-pages. And comments from many clients of the Legal Profession who have been ruined with no recourse due to a lack of – professional care would fill a hard drive. Likewise, professional guiding has become a – joke (11 killed between 2009/2001). Clients not receiving due care and attention…
Climbing/mountaineering to the contrary, was supposed to be, used to be, ‘something special’. As Walter Bonatti put it: ‘A shining light on the scales of human values.’ It used to be..
A typical e-mail to Mountain Clients:
‘Dennis, Been thinking about Aconcagua. So of course I thought Guiding Light. From your website I see you are going in Feb/Mar, 2002. Unfortunately I have free time end of Dec/Jan 2002, when everyone is on holiday for Christmas. If you are not going then, can you suggest another reputable company I can try? I would rather like to avoid the Smiler Cuthbertsons (BMG) of this world. Thanks, Ian.’
Though almost completely unknown in British climbing circles: Lord Hunt was ‘eminently qualified’ to lead the 1953 Mount Everest Expedition (comment in several publications).?
He also wrote: ‘…as a boy I climbed with mountain guides and – learnt nothing.’
A Club Westploration client: ‘Club Westploration are in terms of experience  – eminently qualified.’
‘Rope Boy’, author Dennis Gray, ex-general secretary of the British Mountaineering Council: ‘There is no – substitute for experience.’
Dennis Morrod (founder also of Mountainclients) Born in Manchester August, 1941
Rock Climbing/Mountaineering since 1952
Royal Marine: Climbing in many parts of the world since 1959
Freelance; Professional Climbing Instructor (only BMG guides are allowed to call themslves ‘guides’ in the UK and Europe – according to the BMC?) since 1966
Has made 135 ascents of Mont Blanc; 32 ascents of Mount Kilimanjaro etc
18 First Ascents (five solo) in the UK
Has assisted/rescued, 31 climbers who were in distress, only one of whom, subsequently died.
Is not a member of the Association of British Mounatin Guides UIAGM/IFMGA because, of their safety record or, a lack of one…
In 1978, because it seemed the right thing to do at the time; I did not then know any better, I paid over a £1,000 for a three months course at the ‘elite’ mountain centre – Plas-y-Brenin (BMG). Whilst I learnt – nothing, at the end of the final week (as a client), I was left to descend alone  with a damaged knee from the Cuillin Ridge  – to Sligachan. The ‘qualified’ BMG guide; course leader, disappeared along with the rest of the course – into the night…
PS. It was I, who arranged in 1980, for – all hill walkers, rock climbers and mountaineers to have a reduction in continental coach fares through Wallace Arnold. Three months later, after my third advert; advertising this non profit making offer – something for the climbing community, the BMC started to make the – same, identical offer – to ‘climbers’.
After I stopped advertising the offer (I was not receiving government grants for services to the sport – like the BMC) the BMC changed its advert to – ‘members only’…
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Scouts and Others

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

Scouts Criticised for Cavalier Attitude to Safety. (By the BMG!!)
“The Scouts committee of the Council believes that they are in grave risk from an outside body imposing regulatory restrictions upon them”.

And members of the Association of British Mountain Guides and the Association of Mountaineering Instructors (supported by the British Mountaineering Council) no doubt would get the lucrative job of instructing and guiding the Scouts Association.

“Since this judgement [(Hedley v Cuthbertson)] the BMC has been working to counter the ill conceived suggestion that any standard procedures exist for climbing. Judgement and experience, not a rule book, are used to make the choices that minimise the risks that climbers are exposed to”. (BMC News Archive: 25th July 1997).

So, in fact, there is no rulebook and therefore no ‘rigorous and robust rules’ of the type mentioned by Iain Peter of PyB in a previous section apply. I wish they would make up their minds………..

According to comments in The Guardian on Wednesday February 16th 2000:

“Scout leaders have an old-fashioned ‘cavalier attitude’ towards adventure and risk that is unacceptable in a modern society, according to an internal inquiry into three separate fatal mountain accidents last year”.

The inquiry team, which included Iain Peter, Chief Executive of PyB found a ‘cavalier attitude to rules’. Which rules you might ask. The ones that don’t exist perhaps………

Mr Peter Finlay, a Scout Leader, faced possible criminal action after a young Scout slipped on a Snowdonia footpath. Mr Finlay, no doubt, did not have a mountaineering professional in his corner to explain that in fact there are no hard and fast rules. On the 17th October 2001, Mr Finlay was found not guilty of manslaughter in the court case brought against him.

The internal inquiry I have already referred to was set-up because 3 members of the Scouts Association were killed in separate accidents (there were approximately 500,000 Scouts under training) in 1999.

On December 28th 1998, 6 Venture Scouts were lead into avalanche danger at a time when the posted avalanche warning was grade 3 out of a possible 5 levels of danger. In the ensuing avalanche, 4 of the Scouts were killed being entombed in consolidating snow and ice. There was no internal inquiry and [because there are no rules?] 3 years later, the BMG guide involved did not face criminal proceedings. On the contrary, he was found to be not at fault [because there are no rules?]. Even though that multiple, avoidable accident was just one of many fatal accidents to befall BMG clients, there was and is never any mention of a cavalier attitude on the part of the people in charge of the parties who suffer such disaster.

If the Scouts Association had lost pro rata as many members/clients as the BMG then maybe, just maybe, the comment about them having a cavalier attitude might be used. That the comments emanate from a member of the IFMGA/BMG, an organisation that has lost so many clients in recent years, beggars belief.

A similar cavalier attitude was levelled at the Royal Marines by the Editor of Climber magazine a number of years ago after a Marine slid of the summit of Ben Nevis one winter. The Editor made no mention of the numerous BMG clients that had slid off, fallen off or been pulled off mountains by their guides. That the military has hundreds of thousands of personnel under training at any one time with such a low fatality rate is astounding and yet the Editor felt he had to make such a derogatory comment. And yes, someone was blamed for the avoidable accident to the Royal Marine. It was not a case of the military saying that climbing and mountaineering accidents are inevitable, a comment that it appears to me is trotted out at external Fatal Accident Inquiries following fatal accidents to BMG clients.

I received an answer to an email that I sent to the Scouts Association in connection with these matters:

“…you appear to have an axe to grind about the BMC…”

Mr & Mrs Davies and other parents only wish that I had started to grind that axe sooner. Their son, along with a number of other sons and daughters, have been prematurely lost to them in what I view as avoidable climbing and mountaineering accidents. And guess what? Nobody seems to care…

Mr & Mrs Davies also live with the knowledge that the guide in charge who was responsible for their son’s rope as they were descending the West Flank of the Eiger in 1992 was not at the rear of the rope as he ought to have been, but was descending at the front. They live with the knowledge also that his actions (for which he has never been brought to account, unlike Peter Finlay) received barely a mention in the Swiss Accident Report.

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Institutionalism

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

Whilst interfering in the workings of independent organisations, instructors or guides which are not members of the British Mountaineering Council, the BMC has supported the autonomous Association of British Mountain Guides (now BMG) financially. This was confirmed in a letter from Kate Hoey, the then Minister for Sport. Additional support has been provided with office space and with advertising.

Even though at least 13 BMG clients have been killed since 1990 in avoidable climbing accidents there has never been a word of condemnation from the BMC or High Mountain Sport (the official magazine of the BMC) or The Sports Council/English Sport.

The problem [too many avoidable BMG accidents] may stem from a situation, which was the subject of a comment made by Peter Livesey in May 1998 regarding the BMC:

“The wasteful and vitriolic mountain leadership wars of the mid-70s fought for control of mountain training in this country…has resulted in the most appalling set of low level courses and examinations in subjects tenuously titled Outdoor Pursuits which must have traditional mountain users squirming with discomfort”.

Peter Livesey was one of our most respected rock climbers during the 1970s and is not the only person to have remarked upon this issue

Regardless of this view, it is my view that these formal qualifications remain inadequate and I believe this is supported by the poor accident record of those people who have secured these qualifications.

In 1984 the then general secretary of the BMC criticised Plas-y-Brenin expressing:

“a real sense of moral indignation at the waste, at the disproportionate spending of public resources which could have been better spent and more needfully employed elsewhere”.

He thought that the then £300,000 paid annually by the British taxpayer to the National Mountain Centre at Capel Curig, North Wales was a complete waste of public money. Today, the BMC run Plas-y-Brenin, the National Mountain Centre, a multi-million pound building, which, as I have referred to earlier, they picked up for a song. The complex provides the BMG with a nice office from which to peddle their wares along with free access to the site’s facilities and they benefit commercially from PyB’s £27,000 per annum advertising bill.

With so much support it is no wonder that the BMC/BMG can get away with what I see as their cavalier attitude. A “fatal” attitude that, in my view, has no place in modern society.

My investigation continues…

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