Climber returns to valley of death and saves life

A HERO climber saved a walker who plunged 250ft down a ravine in the Highlands weeks after his friend died on the same mountain.

Teacher Will Close-Ash launched a three-hour rescue mission after finding the battered and bloodied woman while climbing in Glen Coe.

He told yesterday how he had to block out memories of the death of his friend and colleague Alastair Aitken, who died further down the mountain in December.

Mr Aitken, 37, had also been attempting to rescue a stricken climber when he fell to his death at a notorious accident blackspot.

Mr Close-Ash, 33, said: "It's just over six weeks since Al was killed and when I came across these people who needed help I just thought it was all a little too close to home.

"When I saw this woman I just had to take control of the situation.

"She was sitting next to a river with blood on her face because she had hit rocks on the way down – she must have been very scared.

"Time flies when your adrenaline is pumping like that but it's a dangerous area and it's easy to hurt yourself."

Mr Close-Ash spotted the woman as he made his way up the 3,658ft Stob Coire nan Lochan mountain last Saturday.

The terrified victim had plunged from the narrow Allt Coire Gabhail mountain path down an icy ravine, slamming into rocks as she fell.

She was cold and shivering, had shattered bones in her arm and shoulder and suffered a punctured lung.

Mr Close-Ash, an assistant headteacher, patched up her injuries with bandages while emergency services were alerted with details of her location.

She was airlifted to Belford Hospital before being transferred to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.

Mr Close-Ash, from Wallsend, North Tyneside, said: "As she was airlifted from the scene, the woman just said thanks before she disappeared into the helicopter.

"A crew member just turned to me and gave me the thumbs-up and it was nice to know we had done our job."

Mr Close-Ash had previously led a dramatic rescue operation to save seven ill-equipped tourists who were just minutes from death.

He was scaling the side of the Pic Du Canigou mountain in the French Pyrenees when he discovered two Belgian tourists who had fallen hundreds of feet. He spearheaded a rescue mission, cutting steps into the ice to reach them.

He was later presented with the Life Saving Medal from the Order of St John – an award which has gone to only 170 people in the past 100 years.

He added: "I'm starting to think I'm bad luck when it comes to the mountains, whenever I'm there it seems I have to help someone."