Time dims the pain but I will never forget tragic day on the mountain
Survivor John speaks for first time of losing five school pals and guide on peak
A SURVIVOR of Britain’s worst mountaineering disaster marked the 50th anniversary by climbing up the tragic peak.
John Blaikie laid a wreath on Cairngorm plateau where, in November 1971, five teenage pupils and their 18-year-old guide froze to death.
The children came from Ainslie Park secondary in East Pilton, Edinburgh.
A group of 14 had travelled from the school with outdoor education teacher Ben Beattie, 23, and girlfriend Catherine Davidson, 20. They were bound for Lagganlia, an Edinburgh
Corporation outdoor centre near Aviemore.
John has never spoken publicly before of the disaster.
He said: “The training we received beforehand from Ben Beattie saved my life and others.
“We hit whiteout on the plateau and what saved us was the training we received with somebody going 20 yards ahead on a compass line.
“We eventually made it to the Curran shelter. My balaclava was frozen to the walls. But we survived the night.
“It was the training that got me and the others through – time dims the pain and you accept it but you never forget.”
John, 66, drove from his home in Kirkcudbright on Saturday and slept in his car overnight before his emotional return to the summit yesterday.
Ben and Catherine were experienced mountaineers and the group was well equipped.
They were split into two groups taking different routes across the Cairngorm Plateau to 4295ft Ben Macdui, Britain’s second highest peak.
Ben took the experienced walkers. Catherine and trainee instructor Sheelagh Sunderland took the other six – 16-year-old
Carol Bertram and 15-year-olds Diane Dudgeon, Lorraine Dick, Susan Byrne, William Kerr and Raymond Leslie. The stronger group made it but the others didn’t make it to the first shelter.
Sheelagh and five of the children died. Raymond Leslie was the only pupil of the six to survive.
A fatal accident inquiry found that consent forms did not mention winter conditions.
Bereaved parents called for Ben – who died in a fall in the Himalayas – and the principal of Lagganlia, John Paisley, to be found at fault but the inquiry disagreed.