For those interested I first went to Aviemore to ski for New Year 1959/60. The bus got us to the bottom of the hill at Glenmore, though the road was mostly built it was not finished. So it was the hike to Jeans hut across from where the Sheiling is about at the level of the bottom of the Gunbarrel. Then it was hike up to Ski. At the end of the day one either left the skis at the hut, of packed them back down to the bus or skied down as far as possible over a mix of snow and heather. The following year (1960/61) the road was open but no lift. I recall helping a causality down to the upper parking lot from Jeans hut. Later that night she was in a cast and we carried her over from the Cairngorm Hotel to the railway station and loaded her on "The Royal Highlander" to London. Then back to the bar!
See Frith Finlayson's book for his discription of Jean's hut. When the lifts opened it was dismantled and moved, by the Gurka Rifels, into Corrie Lochan.
I inadvertently got two copies of Frith's book, Anyone interested? I blame Frith for my liking for good whiskey though his was Bells and mine is Glenfiddick!

David



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 23.27hrs Sat 7 Mar 09 by DavidElliott.

Glenfiddick???

GLENFIDDICH, see [www.awa.dk]
My incorrect spelling may be why the name has been shortened.

David

Jean's Hut was moved into Coire an Lochan, but it was dismantled along with a host of other Cairngorms bothys following the 1971 tragedy on CairnGorm when six school children from Edinburgh and a teacher froze to death after a disasterous decision to bivvy on the Plateau after failing to reach a bothy in the face of a worsening blizzard.

The book "John Cunningham - Creagh Dubh Climber" has an account of the incident through the eyes of the staff at Glenmore Lodge that attempted a search in the face of horrendous weather conditions.

Was the bothy the party was looking for the very small one right up on the plateau. Difficult to find in good conditions. But why destroy bothies for this reason?
We just had a case of a couple skiing 'out of bounds got lost. The wife died but the husband was found after 10 days and only spent one night in hospital. Should have been found earlied but the police fouled up the call out. Inexcusable.

Interesting article about cairngorm bothies in MC of S newsletter no 26. I recall that following the Cairngorm tradgedy it was decided to remove the three high level huts Curran, St Valerie and El Alamein. The first two were removed. El Alamein remains though it is really just a roofless frame. Maybe they could not find it! Curran in particular was a damp,fetid and rubbish filled shed. As for Jean's Hut it was removed much later as it came to the end of it's useful life. I think it was much the same for the Sinclair Hut. Do we really need to have these ugly dilapidated structures blighting our hills.They were never in any sense traditional bothies. The safety argument has long been discredited for having high level shelters

Thanks, that makes sense. Too difficult to find in bad weather when they are needed and a slum otherwise. The couple who got lost in BC were in trees so had some shelter. Though there were wolves around!

I heard about the BC incident on 'up all night' on radio 5 live. Sounded completely incompetent on the part of the rescue services.

A guide out skiing in the backcountry came across an SOS stamped in the snow 2 days in to the couples ordeal and reported it. The resort checked hotels, parking lots etc for anyone missing, but no one was so it was ignored. Same guide was in th area 4 days later and there were more stamped SOS's so he reported it again. Was igmored again as no one was reported missing. After 10 days guide was heliskiing in the area, the SOS's were still visible so he asked the heli to fly low over the area and the missing ma appeared waving and was rescued.

At leats that was what was reported on 'up all night' by a CBC reporter.

The report we got here is that the SOS were seen from the air, not on the ground. The regulations here are that the SAR teams cannot go out on search unless and until called out by the police. This is because the SAR folks are not covered by provincial insurance unless the RCMP or other police force is involved. In this case the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP or 'the horsemen) checked with the SRS leaders who checked the parking lots but NOT the underground parking. Negative therefor no one was missing! The missing couple's car was in the underground parking of the resort as they had no use for it whilst staying in the hotel. So though to my mind the RCMP are primarily to blame, blame also lies with the SAR and the resort. If an SOS message is spotted that alone should have instigated a search and the one fatality well prevented.
I am an ex member of the SAR organization in Northern BC where the relationship between the RCMP and the SAR group was excellent. The one really big search we had to do (a 3 year old child in thick bush) was successful. The main problem was getting the search group across the Fraser River by boat.

David



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 06.05hrs Thu 5 Mar 09 by DavidElliott.

DavidElliott Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I inadvertently got two copies of Frith's book,
> Anyone interested? I blame Frith for my liking for
> good whiskey though his was Bells and mine is
> Glenfiddick!

Have you still got that second copy of Frith's book?

I've been on the lookout for a copy for a while so if you still do I'd definitely be interested - Frith sold me the first pair of boots I ever owned!