Rachel and Tim died together on Ben Nevis. Their loss haunts me
Mountain rescue chief on his 41 years of triumph – and tragedy
THEIR names and the tragic circumstances that led to their deaths are forever seared in his memory.
Now, as John Stevenson prepares to step down as leader of Scotland’s busiest mountain rescue team, he admits he is still haunted by some of those who perished on the hills.
Ahead of his retirement, Mr Stevenson said it was ‘team effort’ that played the biggest part in finding missing mountaineers, hikers and skiers on Lochaber MRT’s patch, which includes 4,413ft Ben Nevis.
With the team he joined 41 years ago dealing with 80 to 100 callouts a year, and an average of six deaths annually, he said: ‘We have gone into some horrible places, but I refuse to let the team go where it is too dantain, gerous until the conditions allow. In a whiteout you cannot even see your feet. It is like getting inside a black plastic bag and trying to climb out.
‘We have had to battle 100mph winds where you are blown off your feet. The wind chill can be -30C. There are falling rocks and avalanches. You wonder what you are doing out. But when we later meet the people we have saved, we know why.’
Mr Stevenson admitted he has ‘had a few scary moments where I started to doubt my capabilities’.
He said: ‘When you’re in a whiteout or deep darkness, no matter how well you think you know the mounyou don’t know it so well in those conditions.’
The 68-year-old added: ‘We have one team rule – if you are not happy, turn back. Your own safety comes first. The closest we came was during Storm Dennis in 2020 when a guy fell into a gully. It was extremely dangerous. But we kept going and got him.’
Tragedy is a constant companion for Lochaber MRT, which now has around 50 members, including five women. Inverness-shire-born Mr Stevenson said his worst year had 12 fatalities. Several accidents stick in his mind but particularly those where it took months to find the victims.
They include Marcin Bialas, 36, who fell 1,600ft on Ben Nevis in 2018 and was buried 16ft deep by an avalanche. It took five months to recover his body. Then there was Rachel Slater, 24, and Tim Newton, 27, from Bradford, who were caught by an avalanche on Ben Nevis on Valentine’s Day, 2016. Their bodies were found together, buried under snow, five weeks later. Mr Stevenson said: ‘We searched over many weeks before we found Rachel and Tim – that was especially poignant. But finding the bodies brings closure to the families.’
The team have also had to deal with what he terms ‘idiots’. In March 2016, a woman came close to perishing after scaling Ben Nevis in shorts. Sara Albone, 28, of Brighton, reached
‘One rule – if you are not happy, turn back’
‘People missing in the area for decades’
the summit in a blizzard and started displaying signs of hypothermia. Mr Stevenson said: ‘What has changed is the type of person being rescued.
‘It used to be mountaineers, now it is anybody.’
Mr Stevenson still thinks of walkers not found, such as Tom Brown and Eric Cyl, who went missing in 2015. He said: ‘It is a needle in a haystack. I still wonder where they could be.
‘There are people missing in the area for decades.’
It costs around £80,000 a year to run Lochaber MRT, mostly from public donations, which can be made at www. lochabermrt.co.uk.