Page 19 - 2007 AMA Summer

What followed was a night full of winter wonder, teamwork, strong winds and impressive navigation on Ollie’s behalf as well as avalanches and bliz­ zards.
It may seem to some that going out in these conditions was pure folly and perhaps in my own case a little hypocrit­ ical (several days before I had had to berate a fellow meet member who, although a novice had decided to go up onto an exposed ridge and then onto the Cairngorm plateau alone and in 117mph winds without safety gear nor map and compass!).
The point here is the differ­ ence in experience; Ollie and I were experienced moun­ taineers (myself WML) and both expert navigators, we had climbed this route before and were properly equipped with transceivers, probes, map, compass, warm kit, food and hot drink, emergen­ cy shelter and the knowledge with which to use them. We also had a properly complet­ ed route card with estimated ETA in the hands of a SOBER and sensible person with
whom we had discussed our plans in detail.
Sadly the memory of our
new year night time
adventure was tainted the
following day on learning
that two young lads of 18
& 23 had died of expo­
sure. That made a total of
five fatalities and two
seriously injured since I
had arrived in Scotland,
all of them in the
Northern Corries. The
facts of what happened
are unclear and one is /I left surmising. The
mA
'
jpp.;V
2
m -.' /
mm:
*•' .>
-•
-v i\
^.3 • •
>■', ■ /¿x'V
majority of our journey
out of the Corrie was
spent in a full on bliz­
zard and our paths
must surely have passed at some stage.
We saw their car, a beat
up old thing in the car
park and their Vaude tent
was found in the Corrie
the following morning; wholly unsuitable for the conditions and must have been their best, I can only guess that the remainder of their equipment was as poor and that whilst Ollie and I beat the retreat, micro-naving back in our head to toe Gore-Tex
Taxing rockover on day tools.
,
V-W