This third morning - Saturday - he found some water to drink; he had had neither food nor water for two days but had eaten snow. He came down Coire Railbert and started walking along the side of Loch Avon, and came to a large boulder. Drifts nearly encircled it, forming a cave on the lee side, with a floor of heather. It was here that the two instructors from Glenmore Lodge found him at 1.30 pm.

He was physically fit but very nervous and dehydrated. He drank nearly two pints of coffee and a tin of beer. They gave him glucose, sandwiches and biscuits and more for the journey out. Then they started up Coire Raibert.

It was little wonder that Garland had failed to escape the previous day, and astonishing that he had reached any distance this morning. The snow was chest-deep. One man went in front making a trail, the second kicked steps in the bottom of it, and Garland followed without any lagging.

Some luck and good judgement seem to have attended his survival. He was fortunate in that, although the tops were in cloud throughout his ordeal and snow fell fairly constantly, there was never any really strong wind. Apart from this it is more likely that he survived through his own efforts.

He was wearing a large oilskin coat in addition to his anorak, two pairs of trousers and a pair of windproof and waterproof leggings. A large, thick outer pair of socks (sea-book stockings) was snow-and-iced to such an extent that it was thought they kept his legs warm and his feet dry and insulated. He found his luminous watch a great comfort in keeping check of time.

He went down to 2,500 feet for shelter and succeeded in finding it. These points, and the fact that he was physically fit (he kept fit by weight-lifting) saved him, at least in the opinion of the NCO in charge of the Kinloss team.

Another factor, if not the most important may well have been his age and temperament. From his story it is obvious that he has a great tenacity for life; even after losing his spectacles he made an attempt to get out in cloud - and nothing can be worse for a short-sighted person than to be without these aids in mist or darkness on a mountain, particularly when all these are combined with snow.

Panic and despair seem more likely to overtake younger people on mountains, although it is possible that another man of the same age might have died in these circumstances. Continue to page 22