Latest news with #ScottishMountainRescue
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Body found in search for missing Swiss hillwalker
A body has been found in the search for a Swiss walker who went missing in the Highlands several days ago. Bernard Trottet, 65, was walking the Cape Wrath Trail and was last known to be at the Corryhully Bothy in Glenfinnan on May 27. He was planning to walk north to Kinloch Hourn and then on to a campsite in the Morvich area, but did not arrive. READ MORE: Body of Highland hillwalker found as family of missing Ruth Betts informed Scottish Mountain Rescue teams called out record-breaking amount of times in 2024 Police said the body of a man was found in the water in the Kinloch Hourn area at about 12.55pm on Monday. There are not thought to be any suspicious circumstances. Formal identification is yet to take place, but the family of Mr Trottet have been informed. A report will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal.
The Courier
24-04-2025
- Health
- The Courier
Eve Alderman has walked Britain and plans to scale Everest
Eve Alderman has a poster above her bed of Mount Everest, the peak she one day aims to climb. And given what the 11-year-old has already overcome and accomplished, her parents Ian and Sarah are confident she will achieve her ambition soon. Eve, from Stirlingshire, has already hiked the length of Great Britain and all 1,900 miles of Scotland's Great Trails. She has inherited her parents' passion for the outdoors, and climbing and trekking expeditions form part of her home education. But she's living a life of adventure Ian, 44, and Sarah, 41, once feared she would never see. As a toddler she was given 48 hours to live after a tumour was found on her spine. What makes her achievements even more impressive is that she and Ian autistic. And Sarah has also beaten cancer – diagnosed in a cruel twist of fate at the same time as Eve was being treated. Ian and Sarah have always had adventurous spirits. They met at a climbing club. Ian served as an Army combat medic in the Middle East and is a former firefighter. Sarah, a trained teacher, worked for Scottish Mountain Rescue and was an expedition leader and canoe and kayak instructor. Their lives changed following Eve and Sarah's illnesses. But it allowed them to focus on educating Eve themselves. And on enriching her life with the experiences which have shaped her ambition. Ian recalls the harrowing time he and Sarah feared they would lose Eve. 'She was one at the time,' he said. 'The hospital called it regression. Instead of developing she was going backwards. 'She would have periods where she was crying and then she would be silent and you couldn't stir her. 'We were literally having to check she was still breathing.' After repeated hospital visits where no diagnosis could be reached, a GP told them to take Eve straight to the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow. Ian says: 'They admitted her and the ball started rolling rather rapidly. 'Eventually, after quite a lot of investigation, they found a tumour on her spine and said it was inoperable.' 'They gave her 48 hours at one point. 'While that was going on Sarah was going for some routine appointments. 'We didn't really think anything of it as we were too stressed over Eve. 'But that came back as cancer. 'So Sarah was going for her operations and then discharging herself early to come back to the children's hospital. 'It was a pretty crap time. We were planning funerals and the like. 'Luckily that never came to fruition. The surgery for Sarah and treatments they put Eve through worked.' Ian gave up his business to focus on the family and Sarah was physically unable to continue her job with Scottish Mountain Rescue. The couple had always wanted to home educate Eve and began planning for that. Now they work seasonal and part-time jobs to fit round her education and numerous expeditions. Ian started a Facebook page and began documenting their family adventures in a blog, Our Spectrum Adventures. Eve conquered her first Munro at the age of four. She was eight when she became the youngest person to hike the length of Great Britain. Walking from Dunnet Head to Lizard Point via John O'Groats and Lands End she raised money for the National Autistic Society. Was it daunting taking a young child on such an audacious trip? 'The weak point was me,' Ian says, 'it was never Eve. 'Eve's like a machine. 'But when you are sat in March at the northern tip of Scotland, especially back then when the weather was particularly bad for that time of year. 'I remember just sitting in the tent with it being flattened by the wind, the waves crashing below, and crying and thinking 'what the hell have I got myself into this time?' 'But I think you need those moments to find yourself and push forward.' Last year Eve and Ian were confirmed as the only people to have walked all 29 of Scotland's official long-distance trails. Such expeditions form part of Eve's education. As Ian and I speak on the phone Eve is practising maths in their Aberfoyle home. But Ian tells me they'll be backpacking around one of the Scottish islands just a few days later. 'It's quite remarkable what you can integrate into being outdoors,' he says. 'Like maths when you look at navigation and grid references, bearings and aiming off and all this sort of stuff. 'Obviously, there's a limit to what you can do when you're carrying your life on your back. 'So we do sit down at home and we do short division, multiplication, all that sort of stuff.' Ian and Sarah believe the experiences they are giving Eve are far more valuable than she would get in school. 'At that age you can sit them down and get them to read and write, and we do all that. But it's also about discovering yourself and character building. 'A kid in school at a desk in front of a blackboard will learn stuff by rote but you need to find their interests and passions. 'If you find that, then they'll do whatever is required in order to achieve and succeed in that field.' 'If Eve decides she wants to be a doctor, or a vet, or a lawyer – it doesn't have to be something outdoors – then absolutely. 'If it means sitting down with text books at the kitchen table for the next four years then so be it.' Their autism means that for both Eve and Ian outdoors is where they feel most at ease. That's despite the unknowns challenging their desire for predictability. 'We try to be as flexible as we can within the confines of the lifestyle choice and the autism, which requires more structure and predictability than people imagine. 'It's almost hypocritical to say that, because when we're outdoors and hiking it's anything but predictable. 'We have to find somewhere to camp and figure out what are we going to eat, blah, blah, blah, but it's different when we're outdoors. 'Outdoors and indoors are like two polar opposites.' With Eve's Everest ambition a longer term target, the family are working towards goals closer to home meantime. 'We are planning bagging all the Munros,' says Ian. 'But we're also thinking about doing a full round of all the Scottish mountains because then that's a bit more of a challenge.' A mountain is defined as any land over 1,969 ft. Scotland has more than 700. 'They're linking up sections of the Scottish coastline as well so we can start working our way round the coastline,' he adds. 'We always want to do something big. 'It's go big or go home!'
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Tributes paid to mountain rescue 'legend' David Whalley
Tributes have been paid to a mountain search and rescue veteran who was one of the first on scene at the Lockerbie disaster. David "Heavy" Whalley, who has died aged 72, served with the RAF Mountain Rescue Service for almost 40 years. During his career he attended more than 1,000 mountain incidents, dozens of air accidents and helped save hundreds of lives. Scottish Mountain Rescue described Whalley as a "true legend" and broadcaster Cameron McNeish said he made time for everyone. Last year Whalley, of Burghead in Moray, told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme that he had been diagnosed with stage four liver disease. Mountain rescue veteran on 'last fight' after terminal diagnosis Lockerbie bombing: The ultimate detective story? Scottish Mountain Rescue (SMR) said it was "deeply saddened" by the news of his death. It added: "Heavy dedicated his life to helping others in the mountains, giving countless years of service with unwavering commitment, skill, and compassion. "He was a leader, a mentor, and a friend to so many in the mountain rescue community and beyond. "His knowledge, experience, and kindness left an indelible mark on all who worked alongside him." SMR said his legacy would live on through every team member he guided, every life he touched and "every summit where his spirit roams free". McNeish said his friend's death still came as a shock even though he had been ill. The writer added: "Heavy was probably the most-liked and popular person I have ever met, a man with time for everyone and a man with a heart of gold." Last year Whalley said he had "always been a fighter" and would battle until the end. He was affectionately known as by his nickname, "Heavy", which was given to him when he joined the RAF as a 5ft 4in recruit weighing just seven stone. Whalley worked as a team leader for both the RAF Leuchars and RAF Kinloss Mountain Rescue teams. He was also deputy leader at RAF Valley in North Wales and president of the Search and Rescue Dog Association Scotland (SARDA). Whalley attended more than 70 aircraft crashes and was senior team leader of the rescue effort at the scene of the Lockerbie disaster. Pan Am Flight 103 was brought down on 21 December 1988, killing its 259 passengers and crew and another 11 residents in the Scottish town. Reflecting last year on the UK's worst terror attack, Whalley said: "The place was like hell. "It was terrible, and it was so dangerous, and there were fatalities everywhere." "And I don't think people can ever imagine what that was like." He said the police force and the fire brigade were overwhelmed and admitted it took its toll on his mental health. Whalley recalled: "I was just working non-stop for about a week, no sleep, nothing. "One day afterwards I tried to get up and I was frozen, I could not move. "I had about three or four weeks in bed." He said after the trauma of the disaster he fought hard for the military to offer help to rescuers who may have suffered from post-traumatic disease, which is a legacy he was proud of. Whalley was also involved in the search for survivors of the RAF Chinook crash on the Mull of Kintyre in 1994. He said he remembered vividly the scene as the helicopter crew landed on the fog and smoke shrouded peninsula and added: "I've never been so scared." All four crew and 25 passengers, among them almost all of the UK's senior Northern Ireland intelligence experts, died when their helicopter crashed on its journey from near Belfast to Inverness. As he came to terms with his mortality last year, Whalley told the BBC the hardest thing would be leaving behind the people he cherished and who had cared for him over the last few years. He said: "My two beautiful granddaughters, stepdaughters and friend Kalie, and all these people who've been so good to me. "That's hard, but it's going to happen, and that's life."
