Friends of the Ochils Newsletter 15: September 1999Be careful out thereIt is inevitable that each year brings a few more accidents to the Ochils. For all that walkers and climbers are careful, cautious and responsible, this is a sizeable and steep range of hills subject to sudden changes of weather. There is a lot to be learned from studying accident reports, as although they provide grim reading, they also help to spotlight recurring themes. Each year the Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal publishes a Scotland-wide list of incidents and Ochils call-outs are included within this. The 1999 Journal list covers 1998. Five on-hill incidents are recorded, fortunately including no fatalities: 15 February - female walker aged 62 slipped and fell on The Law, fracturing tibia and fibula. 16 May - paraglider aged 38 lost control when taking off from near Myreton Hill; injured a leg. 21 June - four Scouts on a "challenge hike" reported overdue; found safely on the road seven hours later. 9 August - a Jack Russell terrier named Minnie contrived to slip down a slope in Dollar Glen; rucksacked to safety by the mountain rescue team. 13 October - two schoolboys aged 13 and 16 failed to return after intending to camp in Alva Glen. They turned up safe; it is believed they camped at Balquharn dam, next glen to the west. There will of course have been other 1998 incidents, as these are only the ones in which the police and local MRT became involved. Many hillgoers with minor injuries evacuate themselves without assistance - for instance the walker met this spring who was hobbling up the Silver Glen on his first proper walk since breaking an ankle while descending Ben Ever almost a year earlier. The 1999 accident list will be published in the SMC Journal for 2000 and will include at least one fatality: the 30-year-old paraglider who died after crashing into Dumyat on 1 August. This was believed to have been the third Scottish paragliding fatality and the first in the Ochils. |