The Cairngorm Plateau Disaster is remembered 50 years on
Fifty years ago, 14 Edinburgh students and their three leaders set off on a school climbing expedition in the Cairngorms.
But it was to be a trip steeped in tragedy. It came to be known as the Cairngorm Plateau disaster, Britain’s worst mountaineering accident, which left six dead, two fighting for their lives, and many more scared, scarred and heartbroken.
The group of 14 teenagers set off from Ainslie Park School with the school’s outdoor instructor Ben Beattie, who at just 23 was the oldest of the group, and his 21-year-old girlfriend Catherine Davidson in sole charge.
They were headed for Lagganlia Outdoor Centre in Kincraig, Aviemore, where they met 18-year-old Sheila Sutherland, who had just started as a volunteer trainee instructor.
On Saturday, November 20, 1971, the party set off on a navigational exercise, which was meant to see them all return home to their families in two days’ time.
But a series of bad decisions led to tragedy.
Mr Beattie took the eight strongest and fittest students, leaving the other six in the care of Miss Davidson and Miss Sutherland.
As the weather deteriorated the boys found a nearby bothy and survived the storms.
But the female group were not so lucky.
Miss Davidson, worried that the emergency shelter would be engulfed in snow and impossible to find, made the decision to settle for the night in a snow hole, with no tents or cover, and wait.
Despite efforts to keep spirits high, which are said to have included singing songs and sharing stories, the area in which the group lay was knownforaccumulatingsnow and by morning, all eight of them were covered in a frozen layer which was impossible to escape.
The alarm was raised by Mr Beattie’s group who, after dark on Sunday afternoon, had been able to make it back to Lagganlia and inform police and mountain rescue teams that the others were missing.
Unable to act before it was light, 50 brave men set off first thing on Monday morning hoping to find the group and bring them home safely.
Miss Davidson was spotted by a helicopter at around 10.30am. She had managed to travel half a mile on her hands and knees, trying to get help. Although she was suffering with severe exposure and frostbite, with her legs icily locked in the kneeling position, she was able to tell her rescuers where they could find the rest of her group.
Nearby, the frozen bodies of Susan Byrne, Lorraine Dick, Diane Dudgeon, William Kerr, all 15, and 16-year-old Carol
Bertram, were discovered buried beneath snow beside that of their young instructor Miss Sutherland.
The last person to be recovered from the snow hole was 15-year-old Raymond Leslie, who miraculously was still breathing.
Both he and Miss Davidson were airlifted to Raigmore Hospital, where the pair eventually recovered. A fatal accident inquiry was held at Banff Sheriff Court in February of the following year and resulted in several recommendations made to prevent more lives being lost on future expeditions. But no one was ever held responsible.