Harold Raeburn

Harold Andrew Raeburn (21 July 1865 – 21 December 1926) was a Scottish mountaineer.

Raeburn was born in 1865 at 12 Grange Loan, Edinburgh. His father William Raeburn, a brewer, married Jessie Ramsay in 1849. Harold Raeburn was their fourth son, and he grew up to enter his father's occupation as a brewer. He died in Edinburgh, on 21 December 1926, and was buried in Warriston Cemetery, Edinburgh.

It is not documented how or why Raeburn began climbing as a sport, but his early enthusiasm in ornithology led him to climb or descend many steep faces, in search of nests and eggs. A collection of eggs by him is kept in National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh. Living under Edinburgh's Salisbury Crags and possessing a wiry, athletic build he soon adapted to the vertical world of rock and ice.

As to his character, he very obviously possessed the necessary determination and drive of any ambitious and hard mountaineer; Lord Mackay provided a good description of Raeburn, writing that he was "... physically and mentally hard as nails, trained by solitary sea-cliff climbing after birds' haunts, he was certain, unyielding and concise in every movement, both mental and physical." Mackay went on to remark that Raeburn had a capacity of grip that was astonishing: "He was possessed of strong muscular fingers that could press firmly and in a straight downward contact upon the very smallest hold."

Raeburn remained a bachelor all his life but he climbed with both men and women, including his sister Ruth, herself an expert climber, and Jane Inglis Clark, a founder of the Scottish Ladies Mountaineering Club. The (all-male) Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) was founded in 1889 and Raeburn joined in 1896. Within a few years he became its leading climber serving as Vice-President from 1909 to 1911 and later turning down the Presidency. He recorded many classic routes throughout Scotland: there are several "Raeburn's Gullies" scattered across the land.

On Ben Nevis in particular, he left a tremendous legacy of high-quality routes; indeed, "of the 30 new routes on Nevis from 1896 to 1921, his name appears on exactly half." These include a solo first ascent of Observatory Ridge (V.Diff.) in June 1901, Observatory Buttress (V.Diff.) solo in June 1902, his outstanding eponymous Arete (Severe) two days later on North-East Buttress with William and Jane Inglis Clark, and the first winter ascent of Green Gully (IV,4) in 1906. The latter ascent, with a Swiss alpinist called Eberhard Phildius, was barely recognised in a later guidebook, as he had not climbed the rocks of the Comb on the left, but had instead followed snow and ice in the gully. Indeed, Raeburn's ascent was completely forgotten by 1937, when J. H. B. Bell made the second winter ascent, thinking it was the first. Of Phildius himself little is known; he was almost certainly present in Fort William to meet up with another SMC member, the Rev. A. E. Robertson, as Phildius was involved in the Youth Christian Movement.

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