Climber’s fatal fall after using ‘speed’ to boost performance

♦a climber who took amphetamines to improve her performance fell off a mountain in Snowdonia after attempting a dangerous climb, an inquest has heard.

Claire Patricia Beer, 43, from Swansea, was alone on Glyder Fawr when she died. A pathologist agreed with Dewi Pritchard Jones, the North West Wales senior coroner, at Caernarfon that Mrs Beer may have been using the drug, also known as “speed”, as a stimulant “for better performance”.

Mr Pritchard Jones said that he was inclined to find her head injury was due to a fall from a height. But, he said: “What I can’t ignore is the toxicology.

“Amphetamine was found in Mrs Beer’s blood at an extremely high level and, in itself, could have explained the haemorrhage in the brain.”

The coroner added: “Amphetamine has the street name of ‘speed’, which says what the effect of this drug is. [It] may improve your performance but also makes it a lot more likely you will suffer an accident.”

He recorded a conclusion of accidental death.