Hinde contacted the police and then returned to the foot of the mountain, by which time the rest of the team had arrived from Fife.

Hinde and his five men started up the hill at 3.0 am. It was a fine starlit night. They saw lights on top of the East Wall of the Aonach Dubh as they set out, so they headed up the corrie in that direction, hoping to contact the civilian party. They fired several flares but were unable to attract the attention of the others.

Since there was nothing they could do in the dark, they decided to wait for daybreak, so they huddled together in the corrie and tried to snatch some sleep. As soon as dawn came they were on the move again, and with the light to help them they started searching along the foot of the East Wall.

When this proved unproductive, they roped up and combed the Wall itself, still without any result. They started to work round to the upper part of the north face where the angle eases off above the main cliff. In their progress they caught sight of a searcher below them, who said that MacInnes was ahead. They continued on this line until they came to the great gash of Central Gully and from here they saw two men on a sloping shelf near the top of the north face. From the fact that these two were still searching, the RAF knew that nothing had been found.

They started climbing upwards beside the gully, intending to traverse above the top of the northern cliff and to descend the west face by its easy Dinner-time Buttress. But not far from the top of the gully, about the 2,500-foot level, one searcher looked down and caught sight of something red that moved in the depths of the chasm. It was a man.

At first they thought it was one of the civilian rescuers. He responded to their repeated shouts of “Are you OK?“ and once they were inclined to leave him when they understood him to say yes. But they were uneasy when they realised that he was having some difficulty in shouting. Then they heard him say that he had hurt is back, and this clinched the matter. He was the missing climber.

It was extremely difficult to reach him. Eventually they tied two ropes together and abseiled 120 feet. Then came a pitch of twenty feet or so; easy but loose. In fact, the main danger of this descent was that of knocking rock down on the injured man.

They reached Powell on the heels of MacInnes who arrived by way of a lower traverse. He was followed by Catherine, and then another party escorting the survivor.

Catherine treated Powell's injuries as well as she could. He had head and face wounds and his back was injured. While she was attending to him, Hinde looked for the best route of evacuation.

Below them the gully dropped away in a long and sensational pitch. He couldn't see beyond that. He tied two ropes together and abseiled down the top pitch. Below was another, similar. They discussed the situation and decided that, although it would be extremely hard work hauling the stretcher up, this was safer and more practicable than lowering.

A two star red had been sent up for the stretcher when they found the injured man, Continue to Page 9