because it was too late to get back to the hostel.

Kinloss returned from this search at 3.0 p.m. and immediately went out again to look for Jean MacBain and Nigel Milne. The grey van which the couple had been driving had been found in the car park at Glenmore Lodge, but it was still doubtful which mountain they were on.

The RAF went into Coire an t-Sneachda and Coire an Lochain and searched there until dark. At the same ski instructors were out from Glenmore Lodge. It was very cold, with intermittent snow showers. Occasionally cloud descended on the tops. No sign of the missing pair was found.

On the second day the RAF team from Leuchars was called in and other searchers, civilians and police, brought the number up to one hundred and fifty. This day the RAF had intended a more extensive search of Cairngorm and the Loch Avon cliffs, but a telephone message came from the Fort William police which altered their plans. Apparently the previous week Milne had told some friends that he intended to do Braeriach when he visited the Cairngorms. These friends, hearing Milne was missing, reported his proposal to the police, with the result that the search was now concentrated on Braeriach. But although they combed the three great corries, two on the north and one to the south, they found no trace of the missing couple. Again the weather was poor with cloud on the tops.

On the third day the searchers went back to Cairngorm in deteriorating conditions. At noon another message came through from the police. This was more specific. A skier who knew Jean MacBain said that he had met the pair at 10.0am on the previous Sunday morning. They were then on the Windy Ridge of Cairngorm and said that they were going to the summit. He thought they would have reached the top about midday. The reason for the skier's delay in giving this information to the police was that, although he had known two people were missing in the Cairngorms, it was not until the Tuesday that he saw a newspaper and learnt their names.

Before this new information could be acted upon the search had to be abandoned. This was at 1.45 p.m. on April 13th. The weather was now so bad, with gale-force winds and heavy snow, that the officer in charge of the Kinloss team said the men had to give more attention to their own safety than they could give to the search. In the view of the experts the risks now being taken were unjustifiable, and the search was temporarily abandoned.
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