About The Team

Team members are volunteers from amongst recreational mountaineers and hillworkers who live around the team area.

The Architect joined the team in 1988 having arrived in the area 10 years earlier from Glasgow to be nearer the hills. He is a summer and winter hillwalker, a rock climber and a winter climber. He served on the committee for 8 years as Deputy Team Leader, Training Officer and finally First Aid Officer. He designed the extension to our base and is presently involved in proposals to build a new base. A long term passion for the mountains led to a trip to the Himalayas in the mid 1970s that has recently been refuelled by walking and skiing trips to the Alps and Pyrenees.

The Forester joined the team in about 1984 in Dachsteins and Salewa Classics. Has been walking, climbing, dangling and crawling in most types of weather and often contrary to the voices of reason, since his teens (70s). Often punctuates exaggerated climbing stories with such phrases as "aye, but that was before we had friends" or "you just didn't fall off in winter in them days". Got his name in print a couple of times for following a talented climber up something or achieving the ill-advised unscathed. Exponent of night climbing (winter). A keen climber on rock and in winter, devious enough to specifically modify a digit to increase its suitability for finger cracks. Has climbed in the French and Swiss Alps, the Picos de Europa and various European crags and sea cliffs. Recites poetry when drunk.

The Shepherd splits his time between building houses, crofting and hill shepherding and still has time to go rock climbing, play shinty and do MR. Sometimes photographed by the West Highland Free Press pursuing 'harmless fun' with a piece of ash. He grew up in the area, has been going into the hills for as long as he can remember and is training for the Mountain Leader Award.

About Former Team Members

The Crofter grew up at the foot of the area's finest mountains. At the age of 15 he participated in one of the earliest known rescues by those who became members of Kintail MRT when he went to the aid of a fallen climber on the slopes of the Five Sisters of Kintail while others went for help. He later became leader of the team and played a role in the team until the 1990s. An accident report in the SMCJ refers to a rescue being instigated after reports from "a farmer", somewhat understating his contribution to mountain rescue in this locality.

The Doctor was a general practioner in the local practice in Kyle for many years. She was an accomplished mountaineer and ski tourer with experience in the UK and abroad. She took a keen interest in helping the team with first aid training at a time when specialist and advanced first aid training was not as easily come by as today. In a TV series about rescue helicopters in 1989, she was seen taking the leading medical role in two rescues, one in Kintail with the team and one other at sea with the RAF.

The Engineer was secretary of the team in the earliest days of its formal organisation. He moved to the area to supervise building of a nearby main road. He was an accomplished climber and holds the distinction of getting a mention in 'Cold Climbs', the Scottish winter climber's 'bible'. Sadly, he was killed in a road accident in France not long after leaving the area.

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