Tom Weir

Hello I'm tom Weir, mountaineer, patriot, writer and general all round legend.I was born in Springburn, Glasgow in 1914. The son of a locomotive engineer fitter, I belonged to the first generation of working-class outdoor men and began my career tramping the hills near the city whenever I could escape from the grocers shop where I worked. After war-time service I worked as a surveyor for the Ordnance survey (we made maps!) before commencing a full-time career as a writer, photographer and climber.In 1950 I was a member of the first post-war Himalayan expedition and in 1952 was one of the first mountaineers to explore the hitherto closed ranges of Nepal, east of Katmandu.My travels have taken me to the High Artic of East Greenland, the peaks of Northern Norway, the High Atlas of Morocco and the troubled frontier of the Iran, Syrian and Turkish Mountain lands known as Kurdistan.I won some Scottish Television Personality of the Year Award thingy-me-jig in 1978 for my programme 'Weir's Way' (STILL being shown and now available on DVD). Author of many books on climbing and Scotland, my first love has always been the outdoor life in Scotland, enjoying the scenery, wildlife, natural history and of course the people.Now get your tweeds on and get out there, there's alot to see!UPDATE: RIP - Tom Weir died on Thursday 6 July 2006 at a nursing home in West Dunbartonshire aged 91. His funeral was held at Kilmaronock Parish Church. His trademark woolly bobble hat sat on his coffin as local minister, the Reverend Iain Miller, led the tributes. He said: "His message is still relevant: to love the outdoors, the hills and mountains of his beloved country." Tom will remain in our memories as one of Scotlands greatest and charismatic ambassadors. His love of the Scottish landscape is an inspiration to climbers, mountaineers, hillwalkers and Scots worldwide.