"But I remember an occasion when there were only three of us and this fellow had broken both ankles - one leg and an ankle on Middle Fell Buttress high up.
And there was no one about, no one at all, this was before we formed this little Langdale team and Gerald who was working for us, a student and a climber, and another lad that was working for us, a student but non-climber, so there were only three of us went out to get this fellow off Middle Fell Buttress and we got up to him, stretcher and everything, banged morphine into him, actually I banged two lots of morphia into him, he was in such a bad state and then fit up the belays and Gerald and the other lad were lowering me down and about ten feet off the scree in the gully, it must have been nearer than ten feet because a voice said "O.K. Sid, I'll help you" and when I looked down it was Calor Gas Ernie. Ernie Rigg who used to take, and still does, the Calor Gas round, and Ernie Rigg, who was not a mountaineer or a climber had seen that there was a need, and he'd gone up there, up the gully.
These are the things that have been such a pleasure. And our local butcher, Billy Asplin, who supplied us at The Old Hotel, I'd only to wireless down and when we got wirelesses, if I could see that I wasn't going to be down in time to carve and to help with dinner because you always had one eye on the job downstairs too, I would wireless down, I suppose before we got wireless - it would be - though we got wireless very early on, wireless down and suggest that he phone Jim Cameron at Coniston to come and look after the bar and Billy Asplin to come and carve for me. And Billy Asplin would come belting up from Ambleside in his car and I'd probably come down from the rescue and there was Bill, he'd carved for dinner, full house for dinner, and there'd be Jim Cameron in the bar attending to the needs there. Great people, you know . . . "
From the Ambleside Oral History Group archive
