A Millennium Epitaph to clients of the Association of British Mountain Guides
1988 - 2008
I have mentioned elsewhere in this site a letter written on behalf of the Association of British Mountain Guides in Climber magazine. It included the following sentences:
"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, 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 Matthews1999
(Two clients on Mount Aspiring on the 31 December, 2003 not yet identified by name)
(Five clients on Grand Paradiso, Italy, June, 2008 not yet named)
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 (the son of deceased mountainclient Willie Dunnachie, killed in the July, 1992, West Flank of the Eiger accident joined mountainclients in 2005)
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/UIAGM/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.
That restrictive attitude flies in the face of the original Langmuir Mountaincraft Book: "It is not intended organising authorities or employers should exclude those highly competent mountaineers who are known to possess the necessary qualities..." That is exactly what has been allowed to happen to the detriment of mountain clients.
