Cairngorm Plateau disaster

The Cairngorm Plateau, seen from across the Lairig Ghru

The Cairngorms are a mountainous region of Scotland, named after the 1,245-metre (4,085 ft) Cairn Gorm mountain which overlooks Aviemore, the main town in the area. The central region is an area of high granite plateau at about 1,200 metres (3,900 ft), deeply dissected by long glacial valleys running roughly north–south. There are mountain peaks on the individual plateaux between the valleys but these are the eroded stumps of once much higher mountains – they are not much higher now than the plateaux themselves.[1] Between two of these valleys, the Lairig Ghru and the Lairig an Laoigh, extends the Cairngorm Plateau[note 1] of granite boulders and gravel where Cairn Gorm itself and the 1,309-metre (4,295 ft) Ben Macdui – the highest mountain in the Cairngorms and the second highest in the British Isles – are the main summits. The edges of the plateaux are in places steep cliffs of granite and they are excellent for skiing, rock climbing and ice climbing.

Ben Macdui from the Cairngorm Plateau in June 2014

Their height, distances and their severe and changeable weather make the Cairngorms the most arduous area in the United Kingdom.[2] Snow can fall at any time during the year and snow patches persist all summer – for snow and ice climbing the area is the most dependable in Britain.[3][4]

The plateau area has a subarctic climate and only supports sparse tundra vegetation.[5] The shattered terrain is more like the high ground in the arctic regions of Canada or Norway than the European Alps or North American Rocky Mountains.[6] The weather often deteriorates rapidly with elevation, so that when there are moderate conditions 150 metres below the plateau the top can be stormy or misty and there can be icy or powdery snow. Even when no snow is falling the wind can whip up lying snow to produce white-out conditions for a few metres above the surface and snowdrifts can build up rapidly in sheltered places. Gravel can be blown through the air and walking can be impossible.[7][8] Adam Watson says,

"When a gale is accompanied by thick storms of ground drift, or worse, by heavy falling blizzards plus ground drift, or worse still by mist as well, conditions can be extremely serious on the plateau, making it suffocating and difficult to breathe, hard to open your eyes, impossible to see anything beyond your own feet, and unable to communicate with your party except one at a time by cupping an ear and shouting into it".[9]

In January 1993 a wind speed of 176 miles per hour (283 km/h) was measured at Cairngorm summit weather station – the greatest wind speed ever recorded over land in the UK.[note 2][10][11]

From the path up to Cairn Gorm summit, looking back down to Ptarmigan restaurant, October 1991

The valleys between the individual plateaux were used as drove roads by cattle drovers who built rough protective shelters for their arduous journeys. Even today there are no paved roads over the Speyside–Deeside watershed and the passes are impossible even for four-wheel drives. The Lairig Ghru pass between Speyside and Deeside is about 19 miles (30 km) long and reaches its greatest height at Pools of Dee at 810 metres (2,660 ft) where the water may be frozen over even in midsummer.[12][13] This route has a total ascent of about 670 metres (2,200 ft) between habitation at Coylumbridge in Speyside and Linn of Dee.[12] At about the same time that droving was dying out towards the end of the 19th century, deer stalking estates were flourishing and so the shelters were developed into bothies to provide improved, though still primitive, accommodation for gamekeepers.[8] In modern times these bothies have been taken over by the Mountain Bothies Association for use by trekkers and climbers to provide shelter and rough sleeping accommodation.[8]

Cairn Gorm top chairlift station, 1975

Starting in 1960 an area in the rugged Northern Corries between Aviemore and Cairn Gorm was developed for alpine skiing. A road was constructed to an elevation of 650 metres (2,130 ft) in Coire Cas where a ski centre was built and ski lifts and tows were installed, one going up to a new restaurant, the Ptarmigan, at 1,080 metres (3,540 ft). In good weather it was an easy walk from there to the Cairngorm Plateau.[14][note 3]

After the Second World War, the Scottish Council for Physical Recreation established Glenmore Lodge beside Loch Morlich and on the road between Aviemore and the ski centre. In 1959 this moved to a purpose-built centre nearby (later the Scottish Centre for Outdoor Training, which provides training for leadership in mountaineering), and staff were on the spot to help in mountaineering emergencies.[15][16]

In the 1960s a military group erected, without permission from the local authorities, the St Valery, El Alamein and Curran shelters on the Cairngorm Plateau.[17][note 4] Greg Strange states the Curran shelter was built at the request of the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Association.[20] There seems to be agreement that HMS Caledonia apprentices demolished Curran and St Valery in 1975.[21][22]</ref> These could often become buried in snowdrifts but they attracted hikers and campers.[17][23][24] The Curran shelter was of metal covered with boulders, had a floor area 4 by 2 metres (12 by 7 ft), and was beside Lochan Buidhe, the highest standing water in Britain.[25][26] [27] Predicting it would attract inexperienced walkers, the Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland and Adam Watson wrote to the Nature Conservancy pointing out the danger of a shelter in this location, but nothing was done about the matter.[28]

At the time, mountain rescue in the central Cairngorms was the responsibility of the Scottish North-East Counties Constabulary.[29] The mountain rescue teams consisted entirely of unpaid civilian volunteers co-ordinated by the Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland, with the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team (MRT) being the first to be called on for assistance on the Cairngorm Plateau.[30] They, in turn, could request helicopter support from RAF Kinloss. The Braemar MRT and Kinloss RAF MRT[note 5] would also attend if there was a major incident or if the location for the rescue was uncertain.[31][32]

In November 1971 a fourteen-strong party of students from Ainslie Park School in Edinburgh was staying with three leaders at Edinburgh Council's Lagganlia outdoor training centre in Kincraig.[33] In overall charge was 23-year-old Ben Beattie, the school's instructor in outdoor education with the Mountain Instructor Certificate, who had quite extensive mountaineering experience although his experience in the Cairngorms in winter was very limited. Also on the expedition was Beattie's girlfriend, 21-year-old Catherine Davidson, who was a final-year student at Dunfermline College of Physical Education and who was approved by the school to help run the mountaineering club. She had less overall mountaineering experience but she had twice been in the Cairngorms in winter. Accompanying them was Shelagh Sunderland, aged eighteen, who had just started as a Lagganlia volunteer trainee instructor and had no experience in the Cairngorms.[34][35]

Map of central Cairngorms showing shelters and features relating to the 1971 disaster

On Saturday 20 November the party set off on a two-day navigational exercise to cross the Cairngorm Plateau from Cairn Gorm south to Ben Macdui. Because they were very late in starting (it was almost 11:00 when they left Lagganlia) they used the Cairngorm ski lift to get close to the plateau and then, as planned, they separated into two groups – the more experienced group led by Beattie set off and was followed by the group led by Davidson and Sunderland. After crossing the plateau both groups were to descend to the Corrour Bothy at a much lower level in the Lairig Ghru where they would spend the night – sunset was just before 16:00. The less-experienced group of 15-year-olds would then return along the Lairig Ghru while the other group would return by traversing Cairn Toul and Braeriach on the far side of the valley. In case of emergency each group was to go to the Curran shelter high on the plateau. This plan had been approved in advance by the head of Lagganlia, John Paisley, who could forbid unsuitable expeditions.[36][37][38]

Lairig Ghru seen from Ben Macdui. Corrour Bothy is in the glacial valley to the extreme left of the picture, too small to be seen.

Shortly after the groups set off the weather deteriorated, as had been forecast to the groups' knowledge, but the first party, led by Beattie, successfully navigated to the Curran shelter where they dug snow from the door and spent the night. The leader of the second party, worried that they would not be able to find the shelter in white-out conditions – she knew it could become completely covered in snow – decided on a forced bivouac out on the plateau. The site she chose was at a slight dip at the head of the Feith Buidhe burn about 460 metres (500 yd) east of Lochan Buidhe and the Curran shelter. Beattie was not worried about the missing people because he assumed they had gone to some other shelter.[36][37][38][35]

View south from near the scene of the November 1971 tragedy (this photograph was taken in winter 1992)

On Saturday afternoon Davidson had abandoned the original plan when the conditions became poor and some of the children became distressed. Instead of navigating directly to the Curran shelter she had headed slightly downhill aiming for the Feith Buidhe stream hoping to follow it up to Lochan Buidhe and so reach the shelter beside the lochan (small loch). The burn was completely obliterated by snow so she gave up hope of finding Curran and prepared to bivouac in what, unknown to her, was a major accumulation area for snow.[39] John Duff, leader of the Braemar MRT, later considered this was a serious mistake: "to attempt a winter bivouac, in a storm, on a Cairngorms plateau, is literally a life or death decision, and a last option".[40] He also wrote that the major mistake was even to have considered "an appallingly over-ambitious expedition for teenage children" and he laid the blame on all the people making and accepting the plans.[26]

They sheltered in sleeping bags and bivouac sacs in the lee of a snow wall they built and to begin with they kept up good spirits.[41] However, as the snow became deeper through the night there was panic because of the fear of being buried or suffocated. With daylight on Sunday, a boy could be heard shouting under the surface and Sunderland was barely conscious. Davidson and the other boy set off to get help but only got a few yards before they were forced back. Throughout the day the blizzard raged and after dark they could see the flares of a search party but their shouts were not heard and they had lost their own flares in the snow. During this night the children were becoming delirious and were dying. On Monday morning Davidson set off by herself to try to get rescue.[42]

The previous day, on the Sunday, Beattie's group had great difficulty getting out of the hut because of the deep snow and in arduous conditions they were scarcely able to descend from the plateau. After dark at 16:30 they reached Rothiemurchus Hut where they were able to telephone Lagganlia and they met their transport vehicle at 17:30. The children were returned to Lagganlia while Beattie and Paisley drove to the ski centre where they were unable to learn any news. They then went to Glenmore Lodge and then Aviemore police station where at 19:00 they reported Davidson's party missing. Three pairs of rescuers were immediately dispatched from Glenmore Lodge into the blizzard and the night and the Cairngorm, RAF Kinloss, Braemar and Aberdeen MRTs were called out. The mountain rescue teams made their preparations so they could start off hours before first light on Monday.[43]