over three thousand feet in height, providing splendid walking country. On the afternoon of January 3rd, 1960, four young men were on a 2,500 foot pass above Cluanie with Sgurr nan Conbhairean, 3,634 feet, above them and a good day's circuit (two big peaks of over 3,600 feet, and above seven miles of walking) behind them. As they started up the western slopes of Sgurr nan Conbhairean, one of the men, who had been rather reluctant to do this last mountain, was seen to be lagging. At first he was about one hundred yards behind, but at 3.0pm his companions missed him altogether. At this point they retraced their steps, but when they saw no sign of him they assumed he had gone down to the pass and so to the road. The weather conditions then were quite good with light showers of rain but no mist.

When they returned to their camp on Loch Cluanie, they found that the missing man was still out. That evening they went back to the hill and searched, but it was dark and they found nothing.

The missing man was inexperienced but he did carry an axe and a map. He had been wearing crampons for at least part of the day.

Organised searches started the following morning. On the second day visibility was bad; then snow fell heavily and this halted the operation for a time. After this all tracks had disappeared. Police, local people, and RAF Kingloss combed the area but, despite the fact that the place where he was mast seen - at 3.0 p.m. on January 3rd - could be pin-pointed, these searches were unsuccessful.

It was not until September 1962 that a shepherd, gathering in his sheep, found human bones and an ice axe lying among boulders at the head of Gleann Fada. These were identified as the remains of the missing man. The position in which they were found was four or five miles in a straight line from the western slopes of Sgurr nan Conbhairean where he was last seen. Three main ridges run out from its summit: that to the south-west, one to the south-east, descending in the direction of Loch Cluanie where the party was based, and a third going off to the north. It was roughly at the end of this northern ridge that the bones were found. The man who died had done a good day's mountaineering before he was lost; he managed another four or five miles after losing contact with the rest of the party, but he had as many more to do before reaching a house in this, the wrong direction, and this was too far for him.

RAF reports of accidents are made out on official forms: Mountain Rescue Incident Report A. Prolonged study of these induces a peculiar state of somnolence in the researcher. There is a surfeit of sensation: Continue to page 17