I crawled up the last few feet and produced what spare clothing I had and put it on him. He had lost his gloves in the fall and his hands were cold, like dead flesh, and unfeeling. I drew my clothes on him, knowing all the time it was doing as much good in reassurance as anything. He had already been there an hour. He whole leg, from the pelvis, was twisted oddly underneath him. He thought it was fractured, but it transpired that the hip was dislocated.

Lees came up and started to persuade him to co-operate in some kind of downhill progress. As far as we knew, all the occupants of the hut were on the hill, the survivors were injured and might have collapsed on the way down, and it would soon be dark. It could be hours before he was brought down by anyone other than ourselves.

I wandered about the snow pocking up ropes, a rucksack, articles of clothing, a 'north wall' axe. By the time I'd finished Lees had persuaded the boy to move, but it was impossible to straighten his leg. So we put a sling round his ankle and neck to keep it in the twisted position which he insisted was least painful, then Lees clipped another sling round his waist and, picking him up by this, started to slide him gently down the slope. The snow here was good and hard and he couldn't get out of control because I was lowering him on a safety rope belayed from above, Lees and I, wearing crampons, needed no extra security.

We went down fairly smoothly in hundred-foot run-outs; the patient bearing the pain and discomfort with amazing stoicism. But he would also be deriving considerable satisfaction from the fact that something was being done to get him down, and that he was in the hands of an expert.

As we approached the foot of the Comb, Catherine arrived from the hut bringing the First Aid kit. She said both survivors had got down safely; she had put one to bed and sent the other to Fort William for assistance. She had manhandled the stretcher from its box at the back to an obvious position by the front door and, in case anyone else came, had left a note with information concerning the site of the accident and instructions to follow with the stretcher and blankets.

She had established no contact with Hamish and his party who were still climbing.

She was worried about venturing on the snow as she had no axe or crampons. I threw her the north wall axe and she came over and helped with the lowering. A thousand feet below I could see the bright green blob of the
stretcher outside the hut, and smoke pouring out of the chimney.

“Did you make up the fire?“ I asked.

“No.“

“Then someone else is in the hut.“
Lees couldn't be spared from the lowering, Catherine must attend to the casualty when they reached the snow-line; obviously it was I who had to go down and see what was happening.

Catherine replaced me and I started running down the snow. At the lochan it gave out Continue to Page 10