Climber killed after falling 1,600f t but friend walks away
A STUDENT died after falling 1,600ft on Ben Nevis at the weekend, while his friend survived with minor injuries.
The 21-year-old fatality suffered devastating head injuries in the ‘huge fall’ on Sunday.
His climbing partner survived with only a few broken bones and managed to raise the alarm.
The Cardiff University students were scaling the 4,411ft peak’s Tower Gully when a ledge of snow collapsed, carrying them down the mountain.
Around 30 members of Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team went to their aid after the alarm was raised at 2.25pm. Deputy leader Donald Paterson said: ‘The cornice snow was soft and had no real purchase, so it started moving.
‘It just collapsed on them as they came through the cornice. The snow was not enough to bury them but large enough to carry them down the mountain.
‘They must have fallen 500m (1,640ft) – one walks away with a few cracked ribs, the other sadly loses his life.’
Both men were airlifted by a Coastguard helicopter to Belford Hospital in Fort William. The condition of the survivor, also in his 20s, is unknown, but his injuries are not thought to be life threatening.
Last year, Cardiff climber Andrew Foster was killed by falling rocks at Yosemite National Park as he sheltered his wife Lucy. The 31Our year-old, is thought to have been scouting out an ascent at the time. The couple met at Cardiff University.
The men who fell on Sunday are members of the university’s mountaineering club, but were not thought to have been on an official trip at the time.
A Cardiff University spokesman said: ‘The next of kin have been notified and we continue to liaise closely with our Students’ Union colleagues.
‘Our immediate thoughts and sympathies are with the family and friends.’
Mr Paterson added: ‘They were both sat in the snow when we found them. The one chap had suffered a very serious head injury. His climbing partner had raised the alarm by mobile phone.
‘CPR was administered in the helicopter to the badly injured lad, but sadly he could not be saved. thoughts go out to his family and friends.’
Lochaber Mountain Rescue team leader John Stevenson said the climbers had suffered a ‘huge fall’. He said the survivor had ‘an amazing escape’.
He added: ‘In my 36 years with the team, that lad is one of the few to survive that kind of fall there.
‘He must have avoided the worst of the rocks and the snow must have cushioned his fall. He’s had an amazing escape. He did not remember anything about the fall – with the shock of it.’
The student was the third person to die in the hills in the past four weeks. Last month Rebekah Pettifer, 52, from Northamptonshire died and her 23-year-old daughter, who has not been named, was seriously hurt while hillwalking on Buachaille Etive Beag in Glen Coe. Five days earlier, a man died on the same mountain.
Last night, mountain rescuers were sent to assist two climbers lost in bad weather on the Cairngorm Plateau. The pair were located at 9.20pm but Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team said their evacuation would be difficult as no aircraft were available due to worsening weather.
‘Sadly he could not be saved’