BLAST FROM THE PAST ... ice climbing in Scotland

In the mid-1970s I found someone who would watch the Harvard Cabin in Huntington Ravine for me and I headed to Scotland with Jonathan Waterman, James Balog, and John Thackeray. Jim was writing an article for Outside magazine, John T was going to try and get a fourth for his trip to the Himalayas, John W was going to show the world how to climb steep ice and drink beer, and I was going to just hold on to the tail of the tiger.

Jet-lagged and just arrived from Glasgow, we headed up to third class the Anoach Eagach in "full on conditions," got drunk under the table by the Scots, and woke to a violent rainstorm the next morning which collapsed all our American made tents, and only my Scottish vango tent was left standing.

We managed the Tower Ridge on Ben Nevis, while we watched a party get avalanched out of a nearby gully, stumbled down Gardyloo assuming it would avalanche with each step, spent the night on the floor of the CIC hut, and headed to Chamonix the next day .... and that is another story.