02/09/2024
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Editorial:
One of climbing’s great characters
I’ve recently finished reading a book on one of Scotland’s most famous and charismatic climbers and mountaineers. The biography of the inimitable Tom Patey – climber, musician, writer, entertainer and doctor. I bought it at a climbing shop in Inverness on a recent trip to Scotland. I had read Tom Patey’s seminal book, 'One Man’s Mountains', published in 1971 (the year after his death), some decades back. One of the great contributions to mountain literature and, although he writes about his many climbing adventures in this publication, this 450-page biography brings out much more about the depth of his life.
Patey died at the young age of 38 while abseiling off a sea stack in Scotland. He was never one for being over cautious when climbing and took many chances and short cuts, much to the exasperation of many of his climbing partners, and on that fateful day, it may well have been his complacency that led to his death.
But this is not a book review, nor is it about his shortcomings. It is about the enormous passion and energy this man had for climbing and the deep all-consuming culture surrounding that lifestyle, which he furiously embraced in no uncertain terms. He was a man driven beyond the norm by the mountains, the exploration thereof, and his huge unbridled appetite for new routes.
Patey was (and probably still is) responsible for more new routes in Scotland than any other climber, and these were mostly winter routes. Patey was, by his own admission, not the best rock climber of his tenure, but very few could touch him in the harsh conditions of Scottish winter climbing. He climbed with all the greats of that era – Whillans, Brown, McInnes, Bonington and many others, and they all revered his incredible skill in the big mountains, particularly in winter conditions.
He was also the life and soul of any party. He was a very accomplished piano and accordion player, and wrote many of his own songs. After long, brutal days in the hills, you would find him down at the local pub, singing, playing, and partying deep into the night, chain smoking, and with a bottle of whisky by his side. Then the next day he would be up and out again in the hills, forging another new route with friends, or on his own, soloing some scary stuff. His energy was simply boundless.
Patey was taken from the climbing world way too early, but in the 20 years of his short-lived climbing life, he did a staggering amount of climbing – in the Alps, the Himalayas, the whole of the UK and, of course, specifically in his beloved Scotland.
He was certainly one of climbing’s more colourful characters, and although the story of his life left me with a mixture of melancholy emotions, it also left me with a deep respect for climbers like Patey, who “personify the adventure, freedom, fun and the social dimensions of mountaineering, which some modern climbers have perhaps lost sight of”.
Be safe in the hills
Tony
