Doug Lang (left) after the first ascent of Ardverikie Wall, 1967 Picture: Graeme Hunter
Doug Lang was found dead in avalanche debris in Corrie Fee of Mayar above Glen Doll early on the morning of Saturday 19 March.
He was a much-loved Dundee climber, known throughout Scotland for a climbing career which began in the 1960s and continued to the present day. His first significant new climb was a winter ascent of B Gully Chimney in Corrie Fee with David Crabb in 1962. And 50 years later, he died beneath it.
As a young man, he climbed particularly with Graeme Hunter. Together they pioneered outstanding rock climbs on Binnein Shuas, south of Loch Laggan, and on the crags around the head of Glen Muick. In winter, Lang climbed mostly with another Dundee man, Neil Quinn, who reserved his summers for the pursuit of trout.
Lang and Quinn pioneered important winter routes on Ben Nevis and on Lochnagar, as well as making free ascents of other routes on these mountains previously climbed with mechanical aids. They were perhaps the last strong step-cutting cordée, and innovated in that soon-to-be-outmoded context by using a 200-foot rope. This allowed long and perilous run-outs, but saved time – the essence of safety on short winter days.
After making the transition to the new winter technique deploying two ice axes with angled picks, the pair continued to add new winter routes to Ben Nevis and Lochnagar. In the 1970s, Lang also combined with the well-known Cairngorms climber John Bower to make other important ascents in the region.
After Quinn reduced his activities, Lang continued to innovate on Ben Nevis, mostly in the company of Colin Stead, another veteran of the step-cutting era. He maintained a remarkable standard of fitness and agility throughout his life, and was no doubt still climbing at a high standard, and with great pace, on the day of his death.
He became president of the Scottish Mountaineering Club in 1992 and had been heavily involved in the affairs of the club ever since, attending almost every spring and summer meet, and always prominent at the long-standing series of winter meets at the club’s hut on Ben Nevis.
When he learned that he was to be president, he joined the Dundee Probus Club in order to improve his public speaking, and this was so successful that he enjoyed invitations to speak at climbing dinners throughout Britain for several years subsequently.
The achievements of Lang, together with his Dundee friends Hunter and Quinn, recalls the period at the beginning of the last century when the Walker cousins (of the Caldrum jute works) first put Dundee on the mountaineering map. Lang’s death is a huge loss to the wider mountaineering community, and deprives the Dundee group of its lynchpin.
Robin Campbell: Caledonian Mercury
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