Climber Dies in Liathach Avalanche

© The Watch of Barrisdale

A man died on Friday 30th January when a party of two were avalanched on Liathach.

Spidean Coire nan Clach to Liathach  © The Watch of Barrisdale
Spidean Coire nan Clach to Liathach
© The Watch of Barrisdale, Dec 2011

The accident took place in Coireag Dubh Mor on a day of heavy snowfall - 'the most snow we have seen in Torridon so far this year' according to the SAIS blog.

A search was mounted on Friday night when the pair from Suffolk failed to return from their trip to the north side of the mountain.

'Torridon Mountain Rescue Team were alerted and air assistance was provided by Stornoway coastguard helicopter' said a Police Scotland spokesman.

'Poor weather conditions made for difficult search conditions.'

'The search continued during Saturday. One of the climbers was traced in the early afternoon, walking out to summon assistance for his companion. Both had been avalanched.'

'His companion was subsequently traced, but did not survive.'

 


Update 03/02/15: Police have named him as Max Norman, a 41 year old father of three from Ipswich.

His family have made this statement:

'Max was an amazing person and a hugely experienced mountaineer.'

'He loved the Scottish highlands and knew the area very well. We ask for space and time to comfort his young family and to mourn his loss.'

'We are enormously grateful to the rescue services for all their efforts and for the kind support of the staff at the Torridon Youth Hostel.'

 


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1 Feb, 2015
Journalists from three national and one local newspaper have emailed the contacts list on the Ipswich Mountaineering Club website clearly trying to elicit the names of those involved before the names are released by the police. Not very edifying practice I fear, but probably to be expected. I don't myself know who was involved, but obviously a very tragic incident - condolences to all involved. If anyone reading this thread does know the people involved I would them urge not to publish the names unless sure that the next of kin have been notified and are happy for the names to be released Martin Hore
2 Feb, 2015
This, sadly, is quite common. When I worked at a wall we sometimes got calls from the press looking for victims details on the off chance that we knew them or they were on our database.
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