only way to circumvent them is to know one's mountains intimately in good conditions before venturing on them in bad, particularly when solo.

Under Dattner the standard of the team rose steadily. Lees was posted to Kinloss in 1953, then Dan Stewart (an alpinist and member of the Junior Mountaineering Club of Scotland) replaced Dattner as officer in charge of the team. And in April 1954 came the next awkward cliff rescue, but this time, and by an unfortunate coincidence, Kinloss was caught napping.

Until then teams were, on the whole, allowed to go on leave at Bank Holidays. However, as time went on, the RAF was to realise that many climbing accidents occur at just these times, and it was not only necessary that the teams should be at full strength at Bank Holidays, but that they should be in the area or at the centre where - experience had shown - accidents would be most likely to happen. So for example, Valley now stays in Snowdonia at Easter and Christmas, and Kinloss goes to Skye at Whitsun.

But over Easter 1954 Kinloss was on leave. Only a handful of men, none of them competent rock climbers, formed a skeleton team.

The Polaris Mountaineering Club were holding a meet on Ben Nevis, and on April 18th five members and guests were climbing Tower Ridge. A considerable amount of winter snow remained.

The five on Tower Ridge were a strong party. In the rope of three which led, there were two experienced mountaineers with a novice as middle man. Behind them a member of the Ladies' Alpine Club, Betty Emery, was leading Anthea Russell.

Tower Ridge is more of a great buttress than what is usually implied by the term 'ridge'. It is roped climbing all the way in winter, and the crux is usually at the Great Tower, high up at the 4,000-foot level. This section is not only technically hard in comparison with the rest of the climb, but also a psychological strain, being in a position of extreme exposure. Normally under winter conditions the steep face of the tower is turned by the Eastern Traverse: a sloping bank of snow which leads up to a haven, whence a comparatively easy line may be taken vertically to the top of the tower. Below, the side of the ridge drops several hundred feet into Observatory Gully.

The Polaris party started on the ridge at 1.0 pm and at 6.30 pm Anthea Russell was belayed at the end of the Eastern Traverse and Betty Emery was climbing the Tower. Suddenly the leader came off, fell backwards, hit a ledge and disappeared over the edge. The rope slid out through Russell's hands but stopped before it was all gone. There were ten feet left. All the weight seemed to come on the second and she could scarcely breathe.

The first party had witnessed the accident from above and one, Eileen Gregory, descended the Great Tower and tried to take some of the strain off the other woman. Between them they managed to get a loop of loose rope over a belay. The other experienced member of the party - Ernest Snow - descended the tower in his turn and they tried to pull the rope in. This proved quite impossible.

Another party climbed down to them, but the position was so exposed that even their combined efforts couldn't raise the fallen women, nor could they establish any contact with her. Continue to Page 5