Cairngorm John - a wee book to read ...

The Cairngorm mountains have featured in my life since regular ski trips in the 1980s with my Dad. Since then I have walked, ran, camped, bivied, climbed, biked, ski toured and generally explored the area in every season and condition imaginable. I did my summer Mountain Leader training & assessment as well as winter training at Glenmore Lodge. I have always been aware of the work carried out by the Mountain Rescue Teams in Scotland but (thankfully) my knowledge has been indirect to date.

In the book “Cairngorm John – A Life in Mountain Rescue”, the author John Allen sets out to give a guide to the media on the reality of the work carried out by MRTs, share his experiences and to raise the profile of the service. No doubt about it, he fully achieves these aims.

The book starts with a bit of a biographical history of John’s life and how he ended up living and working in the area as well as the history of how the team was originally formed. It continues giving an account of a number of significant rescues each with a slightly different viewpoint or aspect but one common thread runs throughout and that is the professional, highly skilled and motivated nature of each and every team member. The hard skills of actually getting people off the hill are evident but so also are the sympathetic and human touches that too often are lacking from the media reports. As with most organisations, the MRT service is not immune to the politics – both in terms of funding and how they operate but also as seen from the non-mountaineers (i.e. the whole should insurance be mandatory) – John gives a good account of these constraints as well as an informed position which thankfully aligns with my own thoughts on the matter.

The sadness and tragic outcome from some of the rescue descriptions (especially the loss of a young German girl in the middle of summer) makes painful reading but serves to remind exactly why Mountain Rescue is an essential emergency service.

The book ends with a description of John’s move from mountains to sailing – it brings a nice end and highlights that the work of the MRTs and specifically the Cairngorm Team will carry on and is stronger than the individual.

I highly recommend that anyone who has a passion for the mountains reads this.