shouted conversation with him. He told them what had happened to Janes and said that he, too, had fallen. He thought that he had injured his head. He was in considerable difficulty in his present position.

One of the fit men, Ferguson, started to climb up to him. After sixty feet he came on ice and it took him some time to cut his way across it. Eventually he climbed to within twenty five feet of Credland who, he saw now, was himself standing on a patch of ice. Credland was telling him that he was having difficulty in holding on when, almost immediately, he lost his footing and fell to the foot of the buttress. Ferguson descended to find him unconscious. He sent the third man down to the hut for assistance.

Unfortunately three other members of this meet were having difficulty in the upper reaches of North Gully. This left no one available for rescue and two of the cadets went down to Fort William for the RAF.

When the rescue party arrived, Credland was found to be suffering from a fractured skill, and both feet were frostbitten. He died in hospital ten days later.

If the climber on the Ben does not return to the hut by one of the numbered gullies, and is loath to go the long way round the westerly end of the Carn Dearg cliffs, he is left with the easiest course remaining: a descent into Coire Leis at the head of the Allt a' Mhuilinn glen.

The preliminary slope, just below the summit, is so dangerous that most people manage to avoid it nowadays, and they descend the north-east shoulder of the Ben in safety as far as the Carn Mor Dearg arête above Coire Leis. And here many climbers, perhaps confident that the danger is over, perhaps tired, often inexperienced, come to grief.

The descent into Coire Leis from the arête is steep. There are no vertical drops, but there are many protruding rocks, particularly in a year of light snowfall. And often when there is little snow there is much ice. There are only a few hundred feet at the top of the slope which need care but those few hundred feet are the crux, and failure to recognise this has often resulted in disaster. Experienced alpinists rope up on the arête and descend one at a time, belaying and cutting steps, even though they are probably wearing crampons.

Dan Stewart says of this slope: Continue to page 6