that the desolate position of the hut had a profoundly depressing effect on them. In the morning Baird's boots were frozen hard.

On December 31st or January 1st they attempted to return, but instead of coming back through the Lairig Ghru on lower ground and with the wind behind them, they seem to have returned by way of Cairn Toul (4,241 feet), where they must have met the full force of the storm.

On January 2nd Baird was found alive but unconscious near the lower bothy in Gleann Einich. (This implies they had traversed Cairn Toul and come down the correct side.) He died shortly after being found. Civilians and police search for Barrie but failed to find him. But they found frozen tracks leading from Corrour towards Cairn Toul.

Three months later, on March 24th, the two rucksacks belonging to the students were found in Coire Bogha Choiche above the upper bothy in Gleann Einich. Barrie's rucksack was at an altitude of 3,000 feet, and Baird's about three hundred feet lower. The only food they contained was some porridge in a billy-can. Two blankets and two raincoats were attached to Baird's pack.

Barrie's body was found the following day about four hundred yards from the bothy. He was lying on his back in a peat hag.

Thirty-two years later a party of young people were staying at Braemar youth hostel. On New Year's Day, 1959, five of the party, all men, left Braemar to walk over Jock's Road to Glen Doll youth hostel, where they were to meet the rest of the party who were going round by car. The distance between road-ends was something over twelve miles, the watershed rising to a height of three thousand feet. On top they would have several miles of undulating plateau around this altitude, snow-covered and in cloud. By the time they reached the plateau they would have been walking in very bad weather for several hours and be close to exhaustion. Perhaps one of the reasons they didn't turn back when they realised the intensity of the storm was that their friends had left before any of them was aware of the true conditions, and the walkers thought the motorists would be anxious if they didn't arrive in Glen Doll that night. If they did think this, their solicitude was misplaced for, had they returned to Braemar, they could have sent a message to Glen Doll by telephone, telegram or police to reassure their friends.

In fact, when they didn't arrive, their friends did assume that they had gone back to Braemar. It was not until January 3rd, two days later, when they were still absent, that the alarm was raised. RAF Leuchars were called in, and Continue to page 15