Kinloss came in on the 4th.

The searches went on for several weeks, often conducted in very bad weather conditions. The last bodies were not found until the spring, when the snow melted. All were widely separated. From their positions a rough sequence of events could be deduced.

It was thought that the oldest man, who appeared to be the leader, died first. The body was found when the snow receded - at about 2,500 feet, some distance below the track on the summit plateau. When the leader died, it appeared that the party split up. One man started back for Braemar but had gone only a mile when he collapsed and died on Tolmount at an altitude of roughly 3,000 feet.

The other three pushed on after their leader died, in the direction of Glen Doll, but shortly afterwards another collapsed. The two youngest members continued, but one fell over a frozen waterfall (the body was found submerged in the pool at its foot ten days later), while the other died at the head of a fierce gully which appears to be the only way down. This fifth man was found by Leuchars on the first day of the search. He was only a quarter of a mile from the track and Jock's Hut - which would have afforded reasonable shelter, and where a good track leads downhill to Glen Doll and the youth hostel three miles downstream - but this would not appear 'good' when wiped out in a blizzard and to a man who was at the end of his tether.

Splitting the party has been the cause of many accidents, although none in RAF records rivals the Glen Doll disaster. The only other accident involving five deaths is the Lossiemouth tragedy on Ben Nevis. It is a principle of mountaineering that a party should never be split except in an emergency. (After an accident someone has to go for help and someone stay with the injured man - if there are more than two. If there are only two in the party the victim must be left).

Despite this rule people continue to split the party: deliberately, voluntarily - and even in poor weather conditions. In the case of the five Glen Doll victims, they may not have split deliberately. It was the opinion of the RAF that they were more likely to have panicked after the death of one. Voluntary dividing of forces when there is no emergency is a different matter, the point being that if a person gets into difficulty alone there will be no witness, and often his whereabouts will not be known.

North of Loch Cluanie, in Ross and Cromarty, are some big hills well Continue to page 16