This starts with the early post WWII years when Robert and Gordon, as young men, were first attracted to the outdoors. They hiked and climbed in the mountains of the Scottish Highlands and often slept in caves, barns, bothies and tents in both summer and winter. They made friends and climbed with many of the emerging group of mainly working class rock climbers who were pioneering ascents of the cliffs and gullies in Glencoe and Ben Nevis at that time.