would be in contact with the missing men.

The survivor said that at least one of his companions had been in good shape but that two were completely exhausted and would be stretcher cases. When he left them, they could see Fort William and the lochan on the saddle below (Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe). He didn't know the name of the route which they had climbed to reach the summit but, from his description, the RAF concluded that it must have been South Castle Gully. Mountain rescuers must be psychologists and detectives, for such deductions and conclusions are vitally important in tracing the present whereabouts of missing men.

At 3.30pm Alexander and nine others left for Carn Dearg. An hour and a half later they had reached the lochan on the saddle and could see lights descending the mountain. This was the police and civilian party who told them that the search had been unsuccessful to date.

Back in Fort William, the rest of the team had arrived from Kinloss, and two men left immediately for the hill.

Cold, darkness, and the continuous high wind, forced the civilian party to return to the Fort, and the RAF crossed the saddle to spend the night at the CIC hut, in order to be ready on the mountain in the morning. However, two of their number came down. They hoped, with the co-operation of Mr Duff, to extract more specific information from the survivor concerning the whereabouts of the bivouac. He still thought that his companions would be found in the vicinity of the top of the Castle, but without anything more accurate it was unjustifiable for the team to return in the storm and at night. But two other team members, taking rations to their colleagues in the CIC hut, continued the search of Carn Dearg on their own initiative, but were forced to abandon it in the early hours of the morning. They reached the hut at 5.0am on the 26th. The four missing climbers had now spent two days and nights on the Ben in appalling conditions.

At 7.30 am on the third day the team left the CIC hut. Arriving at the summit of Carn Dearg, the party split into pairs to search along the top of the cliff to the north - that is, along the tops of the Castle and its gullies.

At 10.15 am they found three bodies. One was missing. Those that they found were brought down to Fort William by 6.45 p.m.

It was agreed that there was little hope of finding the remaining man alive, and since the searchers were now very tired, the RAF decided to defer searching the following day, unless civilians were unavailable. The operation
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