Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
It was true. Alex was incredibly charming when he wanted to be. But sometimes,
he used his charm as a front from which to launch his acerbic wit. Being on the re-
ceiving end could be a real test. But it was the gentler side of his personality that
captured most of us and made his friends protective. I picked up another photo of
Alex with his father.
'I can see a lot of Alex in this shot, Jean - those inquisitive dark eyes.' He always
seemed to be detecting something outside the frame and beyond the photograph-
er, some idea he was working on in his head. 'He talked a lot about his father.'
Alex's father Hamish was a hardworking and dedicated man, but not someone
interested in outdoor pursuits. Golf was his game and he encouraged Alex to take
it up. On bivvys, when we talked the night away about everything under the sun -
or a frozen moon - Alex had told me many times how well he got on with his fath-
er and how much he respected him, just as much as his mother for sure. And he
took up golf to please his dad. He was on his grammar-school team before climb-
ing took hold.
There are a lot of closet golfers in the climbing community. The quote sometimes
attributed to Mark Twain that golf is 'a good walk spoilt' works well as a descrip-
tion of climbing when things go wrong. The one time I played a round with Alex
was in a threesome with Tim Lewis, then editor of Mountain magazine, on the
Silecroft links course on the West Cumbrian coast. It was mid-winter, five degrees
below freezing with a bitter wind blowing down from snow-covered Blackcomb.
Alex had an excellent swing and hit some long but occasionally wayward drives -
not surprisingly since we were all wearing down suits and double boots. No one
came close to par that day.
'You know John, I think Alex developed his tenacity and loyalty from his father.
Hamish was like that. Once you were his friend he stuck by you.' Jean paused for a
moment. 'But we can never know what will happen next. I remember sending Alex
off in one of those awful vans with Nick Colton on the way to climb the Eiger. I
wondered if I would see him again. And then two weeks later, his father keeled
over and died of a massive stroke, totally unexpected. By the time we got word to
Alex, it was too late for him to get back for the funeral. When he phoned, he was
terribly shocked and couldn't really accept what had happened. Even when I ex-
plained how his father had died, he just said, “I know, Mum, but what's wrong,
what's wrong?”'
When Nick Colton and Alex were stormed off the Eiger, they escaped into the
railway tunnel where some railway workers stopped them: 'Is one of you Alex
MacIntyre?' Thinking this might have something to do with an unpaid bill, they
replied in the negative and having reached the valley, loaded the van and headed
