Eric Langmuir

Eric Langmuir
(Filed: 24/09/2005)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/09/24/db2402.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/09/24/ixportal.html

Eric Langmuir, who has died aged 74, was a well-known climber, ski
instructor, orienteer and author - his book Mountaincraft and Leadership,
first published in 1969, is often referred to simply as "Langmuir" and is
still regarded as required reading for anyone wishing to venture safely into
the hills.

For all his enjoyment of what the outdoors has to offer, Langmuir was always
conscious of the issue of safety, and he did valuable work in the fields of
mountain rescue and avalanche research.

Eric Duncan Grant Langmuir was born in Glasgow on May 3 1931. His father,
James, was a respected GP in the city and was himself a devotee of the
outdoor life; the family would holiday in the Highlands, where James
Langmuir pursued his love of fly-fishing.

Eric began skiing as a teenager, later recalling: "My sister and I would
cycle out to the Cairngorms with our skis across our handlebars, and we had
to walk up the mountain because there was no chairlift, but I loved it. I
then got into snow and ice climbing and was hooked the moment I started."

He was educated at Fettes and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he read Natural
Sciences and developed his love of climbing with the Cambridge
Mountaineering Club, of which he became president. The club tackled some of
the most difficult routes in Britain as well as in the Alps.

On leaving university Langmuir went to Canada to join a geological survey
based at Montreal. It was in Canada that he met his wife, Maureen Lyons, a
Londoner who was working for the National Film Board of Canada; they married
on his return to Britain in 1957.

After a period teaching geography at a school in London, Langmuir was
appointed director of Whitehall, an Outward Bound centre at Buxton,
Derbyshire (among his colleagues there was the mountaineer Joe Brown). Young
people, many from the surrounding cities, came to the centre to be
instructed in activities such as climbing, skiing, caving and potholing. In
his spare time, Langmuir climbed mountains across Scotland, North America,
the Himalayas and the Alps.

He remained at Whitehall for three years, leaving in 1962 to become
principal of Glenmore Lodge, the outdoors pursuit centre near Aviemore, in
the Cairngorms, which specialises in winter mountaineering and leadership
skills. He became deeply involved in the issue of mountain safety and later
became chairman of the Mountain Rescue Committee for Scotland; for his work
in this field he was appointed MBE.

In 1964 Langmuir and three companions were on a mountain in the Cairngorms
searching for some boys from a nearby youth hostel who had become lost. He
later said that he an "inkling" that something was wrong: "The more
experienced you get in the mountains the more you rely on your instincts.
The snow was loose and we could see the weather had changed, but we didn't
have time to go a different way.

"Soon the snow was so thick we could barely see our hands in front of our
faces. There was no noise except the wind, but we suddenly became aware that
the snow beneath us was moving very quickly and we were rushing down the
mountainside with it." Langmuir and his colleagues had been caught in an
avalanche, and had fallen some 600 ft. Buried in snow and barely able to
see, he managed to work one arm free, knowing that this was the only way to
show rescuers where he was.

He and his companions were lucky to survive, but the experience served only
to increase his interest in avalanches. As an amateur researcher, Langmuir
and a colleague would head out to the mountains each week during the winter
to dig snow holes.

They recorded the temperatures of the various snow layers and noted the
different types of crystal formations, marking the weekly changes.
Eventually their work led to the foundation of the Scottish Avalanche
Information Service.

He left Glenmore Lodge in 1970, moving the family to Edinburgh for the sake
of his children's education. Between 1970 and 1975 he established and ran an
Outdoor Education Unit at Moray House College of Further Education in
Edinburgh.

In 1976 Langmuir took up an appointment for the Department of Recreation and
Leisure as assistant director responsible for "countryside" matters in
Lothian Region. His responsiblities were wide, and included Hillend, the
artificial ski centre, and the new sailing training establishment at Port
Edgar.

He retired in 1988, moving to a new house near Aviemore which had been
designed by his son Roddy, an architect. Eric Langmuir's expertise in the
outdoors extended to building igloos. "I have spent many comfortable nights
in igloos," he remarked, "but for them to work properly it has to be pretty
cold.

"They become amazingly warm quite quickly, so if the snow is not freezing
hard, they do melt easily, especially in Scotland where the snow is quite
wet anyway. You have to make sure there is cold air running through them all
the time to avoid the ceiling dripping on you all night."

Aged 60, he took up competitive orienteering, and a decade later he took
part in a mountaineering expedition to Bhutan; in his 70th year he climbed
Mont Blanc and the Cullin Ridge on Skye.

Langmuir was chairman of the British Association of Snow Sports Instructors,
having been one of the country's first professional ski instructors. He was
a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Over the years he constantly revised his book, Mountaincraft and Leadership,
which remains in print and is valued as an essential - and very readable -
textbook. He died on September 18.

Eric Langmuir's wife Maureen died in 1980. He is survived by their two
daughters and two sons (both of whom represented Britain at the Winter
Olympics in Lake Placid in 1980), and by his partner, Marion MacCormick.

Michael Hobby bashed at the keyboard and said:

Just heard that Eric Langmuir has died aged 74. RIP