Mountain Days with Bob Anderson
By Jim Gregson
Way back in the 1970's when Bob appeared on the KMC scene he was already a very experienced mountaineer and he soon became friends with a good number of members. He was always super keen and was out on hill and crag with great regularity, and showed a very adventurous spirit.
Sandy and I shared a great number of good mountain days with Bob, with plenty of good-natured give and take about mutual strengths and shortcomings. We had quite a number of testing adventures together -- good rock routes like Rake End Wall on Pavey Ark, climbing Ardverikie Wall on Binnean Shuas in a downpour of Highland rain, a long link-upon the Buachaille with the final leg being a wet ascent of Agag's Groove. Another very wet day we had involved an ascent of Great Gully on Craig yr Ysfa.
Bob was also a very regular winter climber and managed a very large and respectable number of high quality Scottish routes, but also cast his net wider -- we had fun on a rarely frozen Cautley Spout, tackled several good icefalls in one of the Helvellyn coves, succeeded on the North Buttress of the Buachaille, ticked of a raft of Glencoe classics, and climbed together on the Black Ladders.
He always seemed to be cheerful while out on hill or crag, had a fund of interesting stories to regale the party with and in my experience was an unfailingly reliable mountain companion.
Despite his misfortune with some difficult physical and health problems in recent years he maintained his interest in mountaineering and simply being out in the mountains. He was most helpful to me personally in pushing forward my own entry into the ranks of FRCC and it was always nice to meet up with him in one or other of their huts.
I feel very sad to lose another of my mountaineering friends and companions but I won't easily forget some of the fine times we spent together, sharing our passion for the climbing game. RIP, Bob - you will be missed.
25 Feb 2014
