Born in 1930, Hamish Maclnnes OBE is a Scottish mountaineer with a leading climbing record. He has made many first ascents in Scotland, including the 1965 first winter traverse of Skye's Cuillin Ridge, alongside Tom Patey, Brian Robertson and David Crabbe. In 1973 he climbed the infamous prow of Roraima in Venezuela with Don Whillans, Joe Brown and Mo Anthoine. He has taken part in seven expeditions to the Himalaya, and was deputy leader on Chris Bonington's 1975 Everest South-West Face expedition on which Dougal Haston and Doug Scott made the first British ascent. In addition to around twenty world-class expeditions, he found time to invent items of advanced mountain-rescue equipment including the MacInnes stretcher and specialised ice-climbing hardware such as the Terrordactyl ice axe.

MacInnes founded the Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team in 1961 and served as team leader for over thirty years. An internationally renowned rescue expert, he also founded the Search and Rescue Dog Association and has been the honorary secretary of the Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland, an honorary member of the Scottish Mountaineering Club and holds four honorary doctorates. He has authored an impressive thirty-five books, illustrated with his beautiful photography for which he has become renowned, and has also contributed to hundreds of documentaries and films, including The Eiger Sanction, Highlander and The Living Daylights.