26/08/2003

Woman climber crawled for hours to get help

The woman climber who crawled for six hours with a broken leg in search of help, is being comforted today after learning that her father died on the Glencoe mountainside.

The woman was discovered by Spanish tourists at around 4pm on Sunday. Emergency services were alerted and an RAF helicopter was sent out to find 58-year-old John Rawinsley King.

The rescue helicopter spotted her father within minutes at the foot of drop below a steep scree slope. It is thought that he had attempted the descent but fallen around 300ft to his death.

The 26-year-old student, Elizabeth Jane King, and her father had set out to traverse Aonach Eagach ridge on Saturday in good conditions. However, the pair had decided not to complete the ridge route and as it was starting to get late and they had opted to take a path occasionally used by Mountain Rescue teams as a shortcut to the Glencoe Road.

However, the pair, who were roped together, both fell a short distance and were forced to spend the night on the mountain before continuing.

When they resumed their descent next morning Ms King fell and injured her knee. She then crawled to seek help as her father had been injured from the earlier fall.

Glencoe Mountain Rescue team leader John Greive described the incident as a “tragic accident” said that Ms King’s attempt to seek help had been "remarkable”.

He said that the pair appeared to have been well equipped, but that the route they had chosen was a particularly difficult descent.

The narrow Aonach Eagach ridge at 3,173ft has two Munros and is considered one of the toughest ridge walks in Britain.

(SP)

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