Second Man on the Rope

What are the rules of etiquette in a bothy full of strangers?How cold, exactly, can a Scottish summer get?And how many cans of beer can a man carry whilst fording a swollen river? Second Man on the Rope tackles all these questions and more, a celebrating Scotland's mountains come sun, sleet or snow, through the stories of a great climbing partnership. Ranging from the Cairngorms to Glencoe, from Nevis to Knoydart and from the Cuillin to the Cobbler, this book weaves the story of a friendship amongst witty - and often alarming - tales of mountaineering mishaps. These richly entertaining tales will delight all who love the Scottish hills - be they mountaineers, day-outers, Munro-baggers (like the author) or merely armchair ramblers. Written with a wealth of knowledge, this mountaineering classic is a warm and witty celebration of friendship, forged over many years, between the author and his 'first man' - Davie. Together they form one of the great double acts of climbing literature. They face with humour and fortitude all that the mountains can pit against them - winter avalanches, raging rivers, rats in bothies and Brummies in baseball boots.

Ian R. Mitchell was born in Aberdeen but he's spent most of the last three decades wandering through mountains. He began walking and climbing in the Cairngorms in the 1960s, and he's since built up considerable knowledge of the Scottish Highlands and also further afield-the Alps, the Pyrenees and Norway. He now lives in Glasgow and is the author of several award-winning walking books. In 1991 he was jointly awarded the Boardman-Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature. He was also awarded the Outdoor Writers Guild Award for Excellence for his book Scotland's Mountains Before the Mountaineers.