THE RESCUED

PUT a foot wrong on one of Britain’s highest mountains and you could end up hurtling to what you think is certain death – just ask Ben Taylor.

The 26-year-old walker was making his way down from the summit of the 3,517 feet Stob Coire in Glencoe, Scotland, when he slipped and plummeted 500 feet.

He told Midweek Sport: “We were around 100 metres from the top and I was coming down on one side of the ridge, with my mate on the other side – there was about a metre between us.

“I was traversing across to his side, where it was safer, when I lost my footing, went down and started sliding – I was on my front, but going feet-first down the mountain.

“It must have been about 40 degrees – it was certainly steep enough that I was using my ice axe and I couldn’t get any purchase on the rock.

“The windblown face had made it look like it was quite snowy and soft when it was a face of sheer ice.

Panic

“I was rapidly picking up pace and that’s when I started to panic. I was like, ‘ Shit! Why am I not stopping?

“I think I slid about 150 feet before I started picking up some real pace and that’s when I started bouncing, hitting rocks.

“The ice face had disappeared. I’d gone over what I would say was the lip and I was into 60-65 degree stuff, bouncing off rocks. I don’t know how many I hit, but it was a lot and I was taking the full brunt on my lower back and arse area.

“Luckily, I was still feet first, sliding down and it was only towards the end that I flipped upside down.

“I remember thinking, ‘Shit, this is it.’ I was just waiting for the next impact to see me off, and then I took a big hit on my forearm, before landing headfirst in a gully.

Ben continued: “I wasn’t knocked out, but I sort of came around and thought, ‘Shit! I’m still alive! I can’t believe it.’ And then the pain started flowing through my lower back.

“I’d survived the fall, but looking at where I was – in the middle of a gully that was about six foot deep in snow and probably prone to avalanches – the reality hit me and I realised that surviving the fall probably wasn’t even half the battle.”

Fortunately for Ben, who is an engineer from Kirkham near Preston, Lancs, two climbers had seen him fall, and one of them belayed down to help him.

He explained: “They lowered me out of the gully on the rope, probably another 300-400 feet down to the plateau.

“It was around 4pm and low-level light, and this guy didn’t think the helicopter would come out, so with the two lads’ support, I got up and we started making our way off the mountain.

“I bet we hadn’t even made it 500 metres when we saw the Glencoe Mountain Rescue helicopter. It was just such a massive relief.”

Ben was airlifted to hospital in Fort William, where he was found to have miraculously escaped with just severe bruising.

Lucky

He added: “I don’t like to say it, but when I look back it scares me. If I thought about it too long, I just wouldn’t do anything.

“I just thank my lucky stars that I survived the fall, there was no avalanche in the gully, the climbers were there to help me out and that the mountain rescue came.”