North air cadets rescue walkers from icy peak

Jun 6 2008 by Dan Warburton, The Journal

A NORTH teacher last night relived the moment his team of teenage Air Cadets launched a daring rescue mission to save the lives of seven stranded climbers in the French Pyrenees.

Flight Lieutenant Will Close-Ash, assistant headteacher at Bedlington High School, Northumberland, was on an expedition on the Pic Du Canigou mountain in the south of France with a team of six recruits when they followed blotches of blood on a cliff face.

It was then that they began a three-hour rescue operation after finding two Belgian walkers who had fallen hundreds of feet and were covered in blood – one with broken ribs and a punctured lung, the other with a broken arm.

Five others were then spotted on a ledge 600m above wearing only shorts and T-shirts to protect them from bitter cold which measured only a couple of degrees above freezing point.

Last night 32-year-old Mr Close-Ash, who is from Wallsend, told how he scaled the mountain to reach the stranded Belgian walkers who were just moments from slipping into unconsciousness.

He said: “When one of the cadets saw the blood, I went to see and there were two people lying in the snow. They were both barely conscious and were wearing just T-shirts and shorts.

“We used three first aid kits trying to stop the bleeding, and we put one of them into a sleeping bag because he was starting to suffer from hypothermia.”

The dramatic rescue took place last Thursday at around noon local time. The bitter cold and falling snow meant the team had opted out of climbing the 2,700m to the summit of the mountain.

But Mr Close-Ash was forced to axe steps in to the snow and ice to make a path up to the five other stricken walkers. Once there, he had to undergo a further trek along a narrow ridge to reach the remaining members of the lost team.

He said: “It was not a rock climb, but I had to kick steps in the ice. When I reached them they said, ‘Are you mountain rescue?’ and I said, ‘No, I’m a teacher’. They were very near the summit but the real climb was to the point where they had already reached. It took 30 minutes. Once I was there they wouldn’t come to me because they were on a verge that was particularly treacherous, so I had to go over to them and bring them across. They were not at all ready for what was their first mountain climb.

“They probably had only half an hour before they lost consciousness.”

Mr Close-Ash managed to bring them half way down the descent before the rescue helicopter arrived.

And when news spread of his heroic rescue, Mr Close-Ash was welcomed to his Year 9 History lesson with a round of applause.

He said: “A few people have come up to me and said well done. It’s quite nice.”