Small Only In Stature

Involved in over 1,000 rescues in his career, Heavy Whalley spent his life in the mountains, making an impression on all who knew him

- Cameron McNeish

VERY few people can claim to have found their Eldorado. Few can say they walked the Silver Strand and found the legendary Golden Pagodas at the end. How many people have held the sunrise in their hands?

Teesside songwriter Graham Miles wrote his song My Eldorado away back in the 1950s - a song about hope and ambition. As news reached me of the death of my old friend, mountain rescue legend Dave (Heavy) Whalley, my sadness was tinged with the knowledge that Heavy was one of that small community whose lives touched the heavens.

In a television programme I made with him a few years ago, he commented on how proud he was of some of the inspiring young people he had met on the Scottish hills.

“They'll be doing well even if they get half of what I’ve had! What a life, eh?” he said.

What a life, indeed. A son of the manse, Heavy was introduced to the hills by his Church of Scotland minister father — primarily the hills of Arran and Galloway, but occasionally further afield when his father visited various Highlands parishes. These excursions formed the foundations for a life in the mountains, primarily as a mountain rescuer, but also as a keen climber, mountaineer and hillwalker.

As a serving member of the RAF, he enjoyed expeditions to the Himalayas, Alaska, the Alps, the United States and the Falklands, and he eventually climbed all of the Munros no less than eight times.

He “compleated” his first round at the age of 24 and became Munroist No. 148.

All this was despite a troubled childhood.

Heavy was regularly bullied by his peers because of his small size, but managed to use his fists to great effect, despite being only five feet four inches in height. He told me that, when he left school jobs were scarce, and he had a stark choice to make: either join up or go to gaol.