Veteran Mount Everest climber Sir Chris Bonington yesterday assisted at the scene of a serious climbing accident on the slopes of Ben Nevis.
The 65 year-old mountaineer, who lives in the Lake District, had been rock and ice climbing on Ben Nevis at the time. He was taking an Easter break in Scotland, where winter climbing conditions are still surprisingly good for mid-April thanks to the present cold snap, which has seen nightly sub-zero temperatures on Britain's highest mountain for the past week.
Sir Chris was one of a number of climbers who saw the man fall around 500 feet down the side of Number 4 gully on Ben Nevis. The 'first knight of mountaineering' and another six climbers from various different parties made their way to the scene, where the man was lying unconscious, fighting for his life.
The Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team was called out by mobile phone and a Sea King helicopter was scrambled from RAF Lossiemouth in Moray. Due to the severity of the situation, the helicopter landed in Fort William to pick up a local doctor and two members of the Lochaber Mountain Rescue team before heading for the accident scene.
One of the duo from the Lochaber team was Roger Wild, who flew up with Dr Brian Tregaskis, from Fort William's Belford Hospital. Later Mr Wild said, "There were a group of six or seven climbers around the casualty by the time that we got there. Sir Chris Bonington was one of them. They were doing anything they could to help to keep him alive. Once we got there, they helped us put the stretcher together and then load the man on to the helicopter. We were grateful for the help we got from these people, but I would not like to single out any individual for any special mention."
Sandhurst-trained Sir Chris climbed successfully in the Alps and Himalayas as a young officer. He led the successful 1970 expedition to the south face of Annupurna in the Himalayas, and was also the leader of the British Everest expeditions of 1972 and 1975 (the second of which was the first to achieve the ascent of Mount Everest's south west face).
