CLIMBERS’ ORDEAL

Evening Star, Issue 22896, 2 March 1938, Page 13

CLIMBERS’ ORDEAL

NIGHT m NARROW LEDGE EXHAUSTED WHEN RESCUED Locked in each other’s arms for warmth, two young Scots climbers spent 18 hours on a narrow ledge 3,000 ft up Buchaille Etive Mor, Glencoe, Argyllshire’s highest mountain, while a companion went for help. When rescued they were found to be in the last stages of exhaustion. The two men who were stranded were Robert Buchanan, 22, woollen merchant, of Stonelm, Helensburgh, and Neil Porteous, house factor, of Bank House, Bridge of Weir. They had boon climbing with Ronald Buchanan, of Linfairn, Bridge of Weir,

and had reached an 18in ledge on the Crowberry Ridge when they discovered that their rope was too short to take the three of them along the ridga safely. Two of them were unable to move either forwards or backwards, and although their companion, Ronald Buchanan, who was leading the party, could have rescued one of them by the use of the rope, the pair refused to leave one another. It was decided that Ronald Buchanan should go down the mountain and summon a rescue party. Darkness compelled him to go slowly, but eventually he reached his car on the main north road and drove to Bridge of Orchy, where he managed to collect a party of If experienced climbers. At dawn the next morning they climbed to a part of the ridge overhanging the ledge on which the two men were trapped. Ropes were lowered, and the men hauled to safety. Robert Buchanan later declared: “We could scarcely move an inch on the ledge because there was a drop of 500 ft to certain death.”