THE ''tremendous will to live'' of climber Jacqueline Greaves combined
with her equipment and experience kept her alive throughout two nights
of Siberian weather when a fall left her stranded without a map or ice
axe in the Cairngorms.
Exhausted rescuers were jubilant yesterday when, with hope fading,
Willie Fraser and his alsatian Solo spotted the 53-year-old school
secretary from Warrington walking down the mountain around two miles
from where she was last seen. ''You need days like this to keep you
going,'' said one.
Among the first things Mrs Greaves said to rescuers was that she
wanted a pint of Guinness.
Throughout Monday as 70 men battled against blizzards to find her she
had been wandering around the Cairngorms hallucinating because of the
cold.
One rescuer said: ''She told us she had seen roads with cars and
motorbikes but when she shut her eyes for a few seconds they
disappeared.''
Mr Fraser, relaxing at home with Solo last night said: ''I thought I
noticed some movement about one kilometre in front of us in one of the
gullies or burns. We dismissed it because the others had not seen it.
Then we actually saw someone moving. We didn't expect to find this lady
moving around the hill after two days . . . she was waving to us and the
dogs just picked up her scent.
''She was very, very cold and very pleased to see us.''
Mr Fraser described her as a ''very courageous lady'' and said she was
cracking jokes with the rescue crews on the way down. ''She was in
really good spirits . . . It's such a relief to have a happy ending for
a change.''
He said Solo, who was among the first to reach Mrs Greaves, was last
night ''mooching around the dinner table looking for something to eat''.
Mrs Greaves's rescuers wrapped her in a duvet jacket and warmed her
with hot drinks for 35 minutes until an RAF helicopter arrived to take
her to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.
Corporal Alan Sylvester, a member of the RAF Kinloss mountain rescue
team, was in the party who found her. He said: ''It is fantastic. It is
nice to find one alive. She was walking down although she didn't realise
she was walking to safety.
''When we got to Jacqueline the first thing she said to us was that
she was looking forward to a pint of Guinness. But before that she
stopped walking, sat down and there were tears of pure relief and
emotion.
''Every member of the team sees Jacqueline as a very courageous woman
who had one helluva will to live. But today was undoubtedly crucial. If
she had not been found, I do not think she could have survived another
night up there.''
Mrs Greaves and companions, Mr Bruce Nutter, 49, and Mr David Cawley,
29, both of Lancashire, were descending Coire an Lochan Uaine on 3500ft
Derry Cairngorm on Sunday when they fell through a cornice.
Mr Cawley fell about 200ft and Mr Nutter about 50ft and became
separated. Mr Cawley walked down Glen Derry and raised the alarm.
Mountain rescue teams found Mr Nutter at the Linn of Dee, disoriented
five hours after the fall.
Mrs Greaves told her rescuers that the two men had fallen past her
when the cornice gave way. She had regained her footing and climbed back
up to the plateau and had stood blowing her whistle for almost an hour
in the hope of locating them.
''She had lost her ice axe and map and beause the snow was so hard she
was unable to dig a snow hole and was forced to spend the night in a
lull in the snow out of the wind in her orange bivvy bag,'' said
Corporal Sylvester.
It was not clear where she had spent her second night although it
appeared she had once again lain in a ''snow grave'' to escape the
perilous wind.
''In the morning when the visibility improved she started to make her
way downwards,'' he said. ''She did not know where she was, only that
she was descending and she would have felt the wind conditions improving
as she got lower.
''When we found her there were some tears but her first concern was
for her friends. We reassured her and tried to warm her up by wrapping
her in a duvet jacket and creating a wind break.
''She was very hungry and she had a touch of frost nip which will take
a few weeks to clear. She was confused but she was in good condition.
She is a very strong lass with a tremendous will to live. It was that
will combined with her equipment and experience which saved her.''
He said the rescuers were also exhausted. ''We have only had about two
hours' sleep. But it is superb. A great result. You need days like today
to keep you going.''
On arrival at Raigmore, Mrs Greaves told how she had fallen into the
gully and had sheltered the first night by wedging herself against a
rock.
She ate snow to fight off dehydration as she awaited rescue. Mrs
Greaves said that she had seen rescuers at about four on Monday morning
but they hadn't spotted her. She had subsequently spent the time
whistling to attract attention.
Mrs Greaves was examined by accident surgeon Mark Janssens who said
afterwards: ''She is fit and well apart from suffering some early
frostbite and being rather shaken by her ordeal. She has asked me to
express how grateful she is to everyone involved in the emergency
services and for the attention she has received.
''She really is in remarkably good condition. She was well equipped,
she knew what to do and she had the courage to do it. That really is the
reason she survived. Her frostbite is not established. It will be
sometime before we know how troublesome that is going to be. She is a
remarkably fit lady.''
After being examined Mrs Greaves received offers from several national
newspapers for exclusive rights to her story and she finally accepted
one from the Sun believed to be around #40,000.
The rescue operation which saved her life is thought to have cost
#50,000 involving, at different times, 70 volunteers, five mountain
rescue teams, and a Sea King helicopter from RAF Kinloss.
Mrs Greaves's husband Roy, 52, spoke of his feelings yesterday at the
couple's home in Lowton, Greater Manchester. ''I never gave up hope. I
suppose if nothing had been found today alarm buttons would probably
have been sounding, but this was the day of reckoning. I was quite
confident because she is very fit and she knows what she is doing.''
Guinness last night promised to fund a new tracker dog in recognition
of Mrs Greaves's rescue. ''It will, of course, be a black and white
collie, called Guinness,'' said a company spokesman.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article