Family’s first ‘IanFest’ boosts mountain rescue team funds
JULIA Bell thought she might hate the sight of Ben Nevis when she returned to Scotland for the first time since her husband Ian died on the mountain’s slopes in the late summer of 2015.
But speaking to the Lochaber Times this week from her home in Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, an emotional Mrs Bell said Britain’s highest peak still struck her as being ‘glorious’ when she and her two grown sons gazed up at it during a visit last month to Fort William.
Mrs Bell, together with Oscar, 25, and Louie, 23, had made the long journey from their home in England to hand over a cheque for £850 to Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team, whose members spent a day searching for Ian after he failed to return from a walk on Ben Nevis’s Carn Mòr Dearg trail in August 2015.
Sadly the team did not find experienced hill walker Ian alive, instead coming across the body of the 60-year-old West Herts College lecturer in a gully in Coire Eòghainn.
As well as handing over the cheque - the second donation the Bell family has made to the mountain rescue team - the visit also allowed Mrs Bell and her sons to personally thank mountain rescue team members for their efforts to find Ian.
Three months after Ian’s death, the family had held a special film screening at a local cinema near their home which raised more than £1,000 for the rescue team.
This latest donation, however, came from a special mini music festival entitled ‘IanFest’ which Mrs Bell, Oscar and Louie, held in the back garden of their home in September.
Together with around 100 other family members and friends, including professional musicians, they filled their garden with music and food in a poignant event now set to become an annual fundraiser for Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team.
A total of £850 was raised for the 40-strong team and Mrs Bell said: ‘I wanted to come to thank the mountain rescue team in person but couldn’t face it until recently. But it seemed now would be a good time to do both – hand over the cheque from IanFest and say ‘thank you’ in person to these amazing people.
‘It was an emotional journey to meet the team, but they were fantastic. They were very welcoming and made us feel so at ease – and they were very sensitive and caring with us as Julia Bell
well. They made something that could’ve been very difficult a lot easier than I had feared it would be.
‘Myself and the boys can never thank them all enough for the efforts they made to find Ian and we will be forever grateful to them and to their families, who give so much support to let the team do this vitally important work. Our family will never forget what they did for Ian and us.’
Mrs Bell said it was a very emotional trip, not just shaking the hands of those who had searched for Ian, but looking up at Ben Nevis.
‘We took a car trip as close as we could get. I hadn’t been sure how I would feel looking up at the mountain and towards where Ian died,’ she said.
‘I thought I might hate it, just hate the sight of it. But I didn’t. The mountain was still glorious and it was easy to see why Ian loved being in the mountains so much.’
Mrs Bell and her sons say they will continue raising money for Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team with the second staging of ‘IanFest’ already being planned for next year.
‘The event in our garden was such a warm and loving event, not sad, and helped us honour Ian in a way he would have loved. Even before it was finished, people were saying it was such a nice way to pay tribute to Ian and raise money for such a great bunch of people that we need to do it all again next year.’
The horseshoe route between Carn Mòr Dearg and Ben Nevis via Carn Mòr Dearg Arête is a popular scrambling ascent route of the 1,344m (4,409ft) mountain.
But it can be treacherous, as proven by the fact that just days after Ian’s death, the area claimed the life of a second walker, experienced mountaineer Steve Fogg, 56, from Aboyne, who slipped and fell 600 feet to his death from Carn Mòr Dearg Arête.
Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team leader John Stevenson said donations such as those from the Bell family were vital to keep the team going, although some obviously stem from unfortunate circumstances.
‘Yes, we met with Julia and family; we had a chat about things and we took them up the glen to see the area of the Ben where Ian had his accident,’ Mr Stevenson told the Lochaber Times. ‘Donations from family members and the public keep rescue teams running. Under some circumstances it’s quite sad, but we have to keep going.’
I thought I might hate it, just hate the sight of it. But I didn’t. The mountain was still glorious and it was easy to see why Ian loved being in the mountains so much.