UKH

I’ve always known the name without really having much idea his character. The likes of Bonington and Brown being much better known to me. As his name has been mentioned in the Old Man Of Hoy thread as part of the first ascent team, I thought try to find out a little more about him. Some googling led me this this fairly recent film…

https://vimeo.com/334817159/1a76bf9b73

Can anyone confirm that he and Pat Amet once worked at the Lochgoilhead outdoor centre? I’ve been climbing a bit around there and often wondered about who placed the rusty pegs I occasionally find. Perhaps unlikely, but just maybe some of the lines I’m rediscovering had been played on by these guys decades ago…

I thought he worked at Benmore but I might be wrong.

His FAs include:

Fall Out VS A2 at Creag Liath near Benmore.

Some routes at Dunleachan past Inverary.

Baillie’s Overhang A3 on the Cobbler which I think might be the approximate line of Dalriada.

Some of these don’t seem to be in the SMC database, I’ll let Roger know.

There are a few old pegs around, I found one near The Bunker many years before it got developed.

Ah, Benmore. I’m sure you’ll be correct. Garth mentioned The Padlock was an aid venue. I’m not sure who our when.

I think some of the old pegs need investigation by the Time Team; they may be Roman.

I may have confused a few things, but wasn't he active in Colorado for a time?  I have a vague recollection of seeing his name in connection with the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

But as I say, it's a vague recollection.  

T.

When I climbed the stack last year I met a team from the States who know Rusty. He's still climbing and I believe was hoping to climb the stack again as an anniversary trip? Or had done so recently? I can't exactly remember.

You're right about working at Benmore - Rustie and my uncle (Pete Dyer - father of Neil Dyer) were interviewed (along with one other, possibly named Bill) and all three of them were offered jobs at the soon-to-be-opened outdoor centre.

Just google Rusty Baillie climber and theres lots of info such as https://www.cognitiobooks.com/author.asp?ix=44

He worked at Benmore and then Glenmore Lodge

He also built a bivvy hut half way up Mount Kenya.

https://www.mountainproject.com/route/106691388/the-dragon

He briefly shared a flat with my Dad in Nairobi in the 1960s. They did the first "Grand Traverse" of Mount Kenya together and built an emergency shelter on Nelion (Baillie's Bivvy, which survives but has lost its door). 

It's possible that they met through the Outward Bound movement - Dad was an instructor in Kenya and I believe Rusty was involved with OB.

When I was on Mount Kenya in 2007, a local guide at Mackinder's Hut mentioned that Baillie had recently been back there helping to build a footbridge, somewhere on the Naro Moro route I think.

Yes he worked at Colrorado OB school for a bit. I worked there with an instructor who knew him from that time. We did a couple of Rustie Baillie routes at an obscure cliff in between courses I remember.

 > I think some of the old pegs need investigation by the Time Team; they may be Roman.

What did the Romans ever do for us?

Built us a wall to keep the sassenachs out

Wall? I always thought it was a 'traverse'! That bit along the top of Crag Lough must have needed a lot of mats.

Rusty also made the second British ascent of the 38 route on The Eiger with Dougal Haston  in 1963.

IIRC FA of the popular long fun climb Traverse of the Gods at Swanage. Pendulum, fall across zawn, swim/Tyrolean.

Particularly impressive for someone from Zimbabwe! (Rhodesia at the time) He briefly mentions his upbringing in the film JLS posted, he could easily be a British or SA national of course given the history of that part of the world, do you know one way or the other? 

Bill March? Mutation at Dunleachan was climbed by W. March and R. Baillie.

Do you know who M. A. Harper is?

Fred Harper's first wife ?

Never met any of them, but in 1979 in Yosemite I climbed with a lad from Calgary who knew Bill March and Rusty Baillie working at a centre there. They showed him how to use a cordlette, not that it was called that then.

Also isn't Neil Dyer a dual national, Canadian/Welsh? Maybe they all got a job there?

That sounds very possible.  I only know a little about this stuff because my uncle wrote a book about his life in the Outward Bounds environment.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/You-PAID-This-Peter-Dyer-ebook/dp/B07HDMSR96

Sorry, no idea!

FA info now added. Ballie's Overhang is in as a note, rather than a route, after Dalriada.

M.A.Harper - Marjorie Harper, his first wife.

I always knew her as MA, did wonder what the M was for.

That would be Bill March who worked at Benmore before he went to Glenmore Lodge. In the mid 1970s he went off to N America, as did Rusty Baillie who must also have remained there for when we met him on routes, not once but twice, at Red Rock Nevada in 2012 he told us he was holidaying with friends there but we gathered he lived not too far away, in Idaho I think. He was very friendly and had a big smile. It was good to meet one who'd been at the forefront and therefore known to me by name since before I began in 1965.

Yes, thanks Rusty for lugging the bits of the hut up to the summit of Nelion and putting them together, for 2 punters years later to enjoy a more comfortable night up there than otherwise. 

It was a joint effort, but Baillie's name alliterated! Dad would have been delighted to hear you used it. It was of course superseded to some extent by Ian Howell's more luxurious shelter on Batian. Half of me would like to go back and organise its repair one day.

Rusty was featured in John Cleare's Rock Climbers in Action in Snowdonia. One of the photos is in an article about the book on Footless Crow. https://footlesscrow.blogspot.com/2010/02/rock-climbers-in-action-in-snowdo...

Enjoyed that video. 

Thanks for all the contributions to the thread, I enjoyed reading them.

That picture in Rock Climbers in Action in Snowdonia - and indeed the whole book - was a huge inspiration to John and I before our first summer of leading in North Wales in 1968.

Hello, this is a long shot but does anyone know how I could get in touch with Rusty? I was visiting a friend today, Mary ‘Spud’ Stewart, who’s now 97 and living in a care home in Glasgow. She would love to know how he is, she last saw him some 10 years or so ago in the States. She really lit up when we talked about him, she was part of the GUM club and was host to many well known climbers in her day at her place near Glasgow. Patey, Bonington, Baillie etc. I only found the recent video after I left the home, which was a shame as she would love it, though I’ll show her next time I go back. At 97 you don’t know how much time there is left!  

When I started climbing one the books that inspired me was "Rock Climbers In Action in Snowdonia" Over the years I have had the good fortune to climb many of its illustrated routes. In particular "Cemetry Gates" on Dinas Cromlech. My ascent back in 71? a scary right of passage (EB's, 2 x No 2 hawser ropes and half dozen nuts on slings). In "RCAS" there is a classic caption of "Rusty Ballie bombing up the Gates!". This was adapted to "Fat Boab bumbling up Ardus" or "Man down in Scafell urinals". Great video.

I was with John Cleare last week (we are working on a book with him) and he's been in touch with Rusty recently. If you send me a message with your details on it I can see if we can get it through to him.

Is he ‘bombing up’ the Gates? I remember it just as ‘bombing the Gates’. 
 

The Cenotaph Corner shot was made into a poster and/or used in an advertisement. It was in Pete’s Eats for a long time.

jcm

It's 'Baillie "bombing" up the Gates'.

 So it is. Thinking about it more, I think I've checked my memory on this and found it wanting before. I think actually I once read someone else speaking about RCIAIS and misquoting it as 'bombing' the Gates, and I've misremembered it before.

jcm

A great and unexpected thread, JLS !

I aim to please. Rarely succeed.