The lack of boots wasn't the only defect in equipment. As late as the end of 1949, during a conference at Air Ministry, one subject under discussion was the issue of Commando jackets in lieu of gas capes. One is appalled at the mental picture of the mountain rescue manhandling a general service stretcher along a knife-edge ridge in a gale, all wearing gas capes.

Although they were issued with nailed boots once, by 1950 the problem was acute again, as indeed was the general safety of the team. A Sergeant Staff was then in charge at Valley, uttering a pathetic cri de coeur in his report on a January weekend: "Sir, I found it extremely dangerous climbing with
badly studded boots, and without ice axes, as ice conditions all over mountains very bad, even mountain streams frozen."*

A year later the same man was pleading for hemp ropes instead of the sisal they were using. (Most mountaineers had changed from hemp to nylon some time before this.)

When Flying Officer (Mike) Mason arrived in January 1951, Valley was in a bad way. Although the N.C.O. is an important man in the team, a good officer can make his mark, not only on the team but on the Service as a whole, particularly if the team is his first interest and he knows what it needs and how to get it. Mason was a young medical officer and a civilian climber. When he joined the R.A.F. he tried to obtain a posting to a station where there was a mountain rescue team, only to be told that all teams were commanded by experienced climbers and that there was a long waiting list for vacancies. But Mason was stubborn. He persisted and, through the twin virtues of boxing in the Inter-Command championships and the influence of a sporting Air Commodore, he found himself posted as officer in charge of the Valley team.

He arrived to find a team that was ill-equipped and in-experienced. He found this out almost immediately, for his first call-out came within twenty-four hours of his arrival. It was to an accident on Y Garn.

Y Garn is a fine little mountain overlooking Cwm Idwal. On its north-east flank there is a broken cliff beneath the summit, on the right of which is Central Gully: a scree slope in summer, but in winter holding the snow long and often crowned with a fine cornice. It is a good gully in which to introduce novices to winter climbing. But one of the characteristics of snow and, in particular, of cornices, is that - in mild weather - neither is predictable except as being potentially dangerous. The cornice may collapse and the snow may peel off in an avalanche, given the right temperature, angle, consistency, or any one of these. Or the shock of a cornice falling on a slope will itself precipitate an avalanche.

There had been a lot of snow during the winter of 1950 and the summit ridge of Y Garn was heavily corniced. Five young people decided to climb the snow slope to the top and there to practise tunnelling. Continue to page 6

* Log of the Valley Mountain Rescue Team