AN inexperienced climber has described how she took a "completely bonkers" route to safety down a mountain to get help for her seriously injured guide as he lay dying.
School teacher Ildiko Kerek, 38, did not know which mountain she was on in the Cuillins range on Skye and begged Graham Paterson, 60, to tell her their whereabouts so she could go and bring rescuers to the scene.
A fatal accident inquiry at Portree Sheriff Court into Mr Paterson's death heard yesterday it was "nothing short of a miracle" that she made it down the mountain.
Mr Paterson was only able to mumble incoherently in reply to Ms Kerek due to face and chest injuries. The novice climber set out on her own to try to find her way to safety in a December blizzard on 3167ft Sgurr na Banachich.
Ms Kerek said: "It was a completely bonkers route I took. At one stage I peered cautiously over an edge and all I could see was cloud. It was horrendous.
"The whole scene had changed due to the snow. It was different from what it had looked like during our ascent. It felt like hours I took to get down."
Sheriff Principal Derek Pyle said: "It's nothing short of a miracle she got down - and without a map."
Ms Kerek had hired mountain guide Mr Paterson,of Carbost, Skye, to take her for a "nice, non-challenging walk in the hills".
But two hours into the walk she found herself battling for her life on a steep blizzard-swept slope with an unfamiliar ice axe.
She told the guide she wanted to go back down, but as they started to do so - kicking footholds in the snow - Mr Paterson lost his grip and plunged 300ft into a gully. His body was not found for two days.
Ms Kerek, of Bristol, said the guide told her not to bother bringing a map. "It was my first trip to the Cuillins - I just put my faith in Graham," she said.
PC Edwin Fraser told the inquiry he was surprised how little equipment the pair had, adding: "You would normally carry a lot more equipment than you need in case of emergency."
Mountain safety inspector Robert Telfer said Mr Paterson should have shown Ms Kerek where they were heading with a map. Sheriff Principal Pyle will give his determination later.
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