Andy Nisbet and Steve Perry died on Ben Hope in February.

I’ve tried to make this a reasonably balanced blog, but it’s been difficult deciding what to include and what to miss out.

Steve asked us out for dinner one night in Kalymnos but Steve and I never climbed together. That night we talked (among other things) about the stress of belaying Julian Lines, I was very inexperienced in belaying him compared to Steve’s efforts.

I first got to know Andrew in Aberdeen, I don’t know when he changed his name to Andy.

OLYMPUS

In those days a lot of climbers had Olympus SLR cameras, I dropped mine in the North Sea off an Aberdeen sea cliff in 1980. My fingers were covered in greasy white seagull stuff from the previous route so it slipped from my grasp. I was in a bad mood so didn’t second Andrew’s new route which he called Olympus. I had been in the Alps so it was suggested I might be able to claim on my BMC insurance. He had a PhD so wrote a witness statement as Dr Andrew Nisbet, I got the money so bought another Olympus. Andy and Neil Spinks did another route on Beinn Eighe the same year called Olympus after Neil’s camera was destroyed by a rock. I hope to do some of Andy’s routes on Beinn Eighe soon.

MACHINE

I read in an obituary that Andy was called the Droid because of his ‘ungainly climbing style’, this is repeated on wikipedia but it is not why he got that name.

In 1981 he was climbing new winter routes on Carn Etchachan with Steve Kennedy and Neil Morrison. Despite deep soft snow while walking in to the cliff he kept ploughing a path like a machine, so they called him The Droid.

The following year an Aberdeen team decided to liven up my New Year at Cairndow (near Arrochar, where I was living and working). Afterwards the locals mentioned seeing a red haired Santa, so Andy had been noticed.

Being a droid he was able to walk up numerous hills. He did all 282 Munros five times. He finished his fifth round on Ben More, Mull with his sister and brother in law. I was working but he still bought all of us dinner that night in Tobermory.

BIRTHDAYS

Neil Horn and I climbed in Glen Nevis on my 30th then went to the Kingshouse on our motorbikes, Andy was in the bar with Andy Cunningham.

The next day Neil and I sobered up on Trapeze (not recommended) then did Hee-Haw and Consolation while the Andys did some horrible route that they would repeat in the winter.

My 50th was a bit more sociable (and sensible), with a few friends meeting up on Skye. Andy was ahead of us and we caught up with him at Poverty Point at Neist, I had named the crag and knew it fairly well. I shouted across to Andy that the route he was on had not been climbed, he assumed it had but wasn't bothered so carried on throwing off loose rock as he went. Photo of Andy on FA of Rhubarb Crumble above. We then did one of my projects, photo of Andy seconding FA of Slot Machine below.

DRIVING

One of his climbing partners said he was the worst driver ever and always drove fast regardless of conditions, so, unsurprisingly Andy had a number of car crashes,.

I was about to walk to the crag at Calgary on Mull one evening when Andy drove past. I thought I should show him the crag so did a three point turn and tried to stop him. On the single track road I had my lights on full beam and was blasting the horn, he eventually stopped for some reason. Neither Andy or Gill had noticed my car!

He wasn’t driving during his worst crash which resulted in him being in a coma for a few days, he had trouble with his memory afterwards. When he was staying here one time he had to write up new routes straight away before he forgot all about them. I asked him about Skydiver, a three star route on Arran that he was on the first free ascent of, but he didn’t know what I was talking about. He seemed to regain his memory later.

ETHICS

Sometimes his ethics seemed a bit old fashioned, or maybe futuristic?

He was on the FWA of Unicorn in Glencoe. At the time classic summer routes were taboo in winter and there was doubt about whether the route was in full winter condition, thirdly it was not led clean. Only the third point seems relevant now as attitudes have changed over the decades.

We both wanted to climb a crack on Beinn Damph so agreed to do it together. But Andy did it without bothering to phone me (and they used a rest point), but he didn’t care.

I tried to get the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) to stop accepting routes that hadn’t been climbed clean, the club president Des Rubens agreed with me, but a few routes still got accepted.

GUIDEBOOKS

SKYE AND THE HEBRIDES

Andy was one of my seconders when I applied to join the SMC in 1999. I didn’t mention on the application form that I had written up Mull for the 1996 SMC guidebook, Andy said I should as it would be decided by a committee and a committee wouldn’t know that.

NORTHERN HIGHLANDS SOUTH

We climbed together a couple of times while he was working on that guide. One day on Fence Crag to show him existing climbs, add new routes and get the crag shot. Another day we repeating some routes on Seana Mheallan when he took the crag photos for the guide.

I argued that Creag Dubh on Beinn Damph was the black crag but Andy was adamant it was the pale crag to the left so that was the way it appeared in the guidebook.

HIGHLAND OUTCROPS SOUTH

When he was working on Highland Outcrops South he wasn’t sure of the location of some routes so I took a ferry to Ardnamurchan one evening to help identify climbs. Andy bought tea, an excellent seafood salad ordered before we went to the crag was waiting for us on our return.

I discovered Andy had two speeds. In the evening walking to a crag I couldn’t keep up with him, by contrast in the morning I nearly missed my ferry back to Mull as he was so slow packing up (even with me helping to pack his tent).

When he was checking out routes he asked me if a rib on Easdale had been climbed. I said no so he returned and soloed it. I later remembered that Dave had told me to solo something before we roped up for some proper climbing, that was in the 80s. I told Andy but he still claimed the FA 30 years later.

Andy did a tremendous amount of work for Scottish Mountaineering Club guidebooks and wrote up the new routes for the annual SMC journal which must have taken a huge amount of time.

I was one of numerous climbers who had many phone conversations and email exchanges with him about Scottish climbs.

The last time I climbed with Andy was in September on one of his routes at Moy, we returned to Moy for some routes last weekend.

Photo below Andy on FWA Pinnacle Grooves, Lochnagar.