Eric Langmuir

Eric Langmuir (1931 to 2005) was a Scottish mountaineer and educationalist whose handbook shaped mountain training in Britain. Educated at Fettes College and Peterhouse, Cambridge, he was president of the Cambridge University mountaineering club in 1954 and 1955. He made the first British ascent of the north-east face of the Piz Badile in 1955 and pioneered modern rock climbing on the Etive Slabs of Beinn Trilleachan. After working as a geologist in Canada he ran the White Hall Centre in Derbyshire and then Glenmore Lodge in the Cairngorms, where he led the mountain rescue team and began research on avalanche risk. His book Mountaincraft and Leadership, first published in 1969, sold more than 150,000 copies in its first three editions and remains in print. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1978 and received an MBE in 1986 for services to mountaineering in Scotland.