A Great Day on Stob Bàn...before a Helicopter Rescue!

[alan54]

This is a hillwalk report that I hoped I would never be in a situation to be writing but over the past few days two thoughts have kept coming back to me.

No one plans to have an accident, but you should be prepared for an accident. Was I prepared?

A wise person learns from their experience, but an even wiser person learns from others' experiences. This is for me the most important reason for reflecting and also sharing my experience with anyone who decides to read on.

Most times I go out on the hills on my own enjoying the peace, solitude, beauty of the hills and glens, as well as the challenge of finding the best route across sometimes difficult terrain. I have always ensured my wife has a link to the Walk Highlands map of my route, my expected time to the summit(s) where there is more often than not an internet signal to send a selfie, and also expected time back at the end of the walk. We both knew that was not perfect with many parts of the hill especially lower down in the glens having poor or no phone/internet signals, but we felt that was the best solution.

However, first of all I need to turn the clock back to the beginning of February this year when my wife had a chance conversation with a friend who, after asking if I was away walking and how we kept in touch, said she had heard about some sort of tracking device you could use. My wife mentioned it to me, and we spoke to our son who works in IT and knows about the latest gadgets for a whole range of things!

He did some research on Personal Locator Beacons (PLB) and said that a Garmin inReach MINI2 Tracker device would work well for hillwalking, plus it could be linked to my Garmin watch. I purchased one on 16th February and actually used it on my first visit to Stob Bàn in the Grey Corries ten days later!

Stob Bàn with its winter coat

We were both very impressed with it as it gave my wife and myself so much reassurance that she knew where I was to within a small area with its 10 minute satellite tracking signal function. We have both agreed many times since it was something I should have looked at getting much earlier, but I just did not know of its existence, and no one ever had mentioned it in walk reports I had read.

On that February walk in beautiful winter weather I made the decision at about 790m that, whilst I had sufficient daylight left, having broken a trail for most of the way up from the bothy through knee deep snow, it would not be wise to continue but leave the summit for another day. I knew I was getting tired, and the steepest part was still to come.

The 17th of April was that other day when a clear weather window was forecast after over three weeks off the hills due almost constant strong to gale force winds, and before the next weather system which was expected overnight. With a planned start for 11.00-11.30am, my anticipated time for completion of the walk was about 6.00pm.

It was straightforward to retrace my steps up the Lairig Leacach to the bothy after asking the Wee Minister to wish me luck(!).

My second meeting with the Wee Minister

Stob Bàn from the Allt a Chùil Choirean on the ascent near the bothy

I found the marker cairn, which was buried in snow when here in February, so was able to follow the boggy track up onto hill ‘Point 769’, rather than break a fresh trail this time.

The snow level started at ~700m and was patchy to the summit, with a few small wet snow fields making it hard to find the path especially on the steep final climb, which I reached by mid-afternoon.

Reaching the snow level

It reinforced in my mind it was the correct decision to stop on the previous walk due to the snow depth and steepness of ascent ahead.

The final steep ascent

With light winds and excellent visibility there was time to enjoy the views of the surrounding hills from the summit.

Stob Choire Claurigh

Ben Nevis to the west and the Grey Corries ridge

Sgùrr Innse with Creag Meagaidh in the distance

Having negotiated the initial steep descent over some wet slippery snow, I found myself below the snow line with 1Km to go (about 20 minutes /150m descent) until I reached the track leading to the bothy and the 6.5Km walk out.

The slippery snowy slopes

The last kilometre to the bothy which I was NOT about to complete

The Garmin Watch Route Map until my accident

The Mapshare tracking of the route for my wife at home to know where I had reached until I fell

THE ACCIDENT & THE RESCUE
Despite having trekking poles to help, a simple slip on an eroded step of muddy grass at the edge of the rough path and I fell landing awkwardly on my right leg. Unfortunately, my poles did not save the way the right leg landed and twisted. Hearing the crack as well as seeing an obvious deformity meant I quickly realised I had a fracture dislocation of my ankle, and I would need assistance to get off Stob Bàn.

I activated my Garmin Tracker SOS at 16.08 to the Garmin International Emergency Response Coordination Centre in Texas, USA who alerted Police Scotland.

SOS with automatic recording of my co-ordinates

In turn they liaised with the HM Coastguard Search and Rescue, and Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team to start a rescue plan.
To have a response within four minutes that my call had been logged and seven minutes later that the emergency services had been notified was immensely reassuring.

The Garmin Tracker connected to my phone via Bluetooth with the Garmin Messenger App open

Confirmation the UK Rescue services were already organising a rescue

Further satellite text messaging was not just supportive to me, but by being able to give more details of my injury to the rescue services clearly assisted in ensuring the quickest and most appropriate way to get me off Stob Bàn was put into action. The decision was made that a HM Coastguard Search and Rescue helicopter would be the best way to reach me and then get me to hospital.

Sharing more information on my situation

Confirmation a helicopter was on the way (arriving about 10 minutes later)

To know too, that within twenty minutes of it happening my wife knew the rescue services had been alerted after being phoned from the Garmin Coordination Centre in America (as was my son as the second emergency contact) , meant so much to me staying calm on the hill and let me think clearly on what I should do to look after myself until help arrived. One priority was using my power pack to recharge my phone to have the maximum battery life available for the hours ahead. I was able also to tell my wife directly via satellite text as she has the App on her phone too that “I am safe”, and for her to confirm that help was on its way.

The welcome sight of the Search and Rescue Helicopter appearing over Sgùrr Innse

Circling around to drop off the Winch Paramedic

My splinted injured right leg

The 'Green Whistle' (an inhaled painkiller) to give me pain relief whilst the paramedic splinted my leg and have me winched aboard the helicopter

A very relieved smile and ready to be winched up

The flight path back to Inverness (Garmin Tracker)

Leaving Stob Bàn

Tracker continuing to record on the helicopter flight

En route

The Helipad at Raigmore Hospital 30 minutes after leaving Stob Bàn

Just above the Helipad

The ambulance transfer to A & E

SOME REFLECTIONS
An experience I never want to repeat but what however was critical to the best outcome was the Garmin Tracker device which ensured the quickest possible rescue and therefore medical treatment.
It meant that if I had not had a Garmin Tracker, then as I was on my own and with no mobile phone or internet signal where I was when I checked, the earliest a call by my wife to say I was overdue to the rescue services would have been at least 7.00pm.
I later learnt, even when someone is notified as being overdue, a frequent occurrence on the hills for MRT teams, LMRT would understandably wait for definite evidence that there has been an event before mobilising a search and rescue. That was not something I had thought through before I had a tracker when hillwalking on my own. The information from the tracker provided that evidence.

Lochaber MRT Facebook Page

...and Facebook update from the family

So, unless for instance some other hillwalker was passing sooner (very unlikely that day as I met only two other walkers who had started earlier than I did), a rescue would not have started until first light when it was evident I had not taken just slightly longer than I had estimated to my wife. Importantly too, it would be safer for the MRT to be deployed then, rather than starting out in darkness with no information of where I might be on the planned route to guide them. I would have therefore been out on Stob Bàn overnight which was not a thought for which I was prepared. It is not a pleasant thought, even now, to think what would have happened if my wife had not had that chance conversation in February which led to me investing in a PLB.

So, answering my question to myself at the start of this report, I feel with adding my newest piece of ‘hill equipment’ only two months before, I was well prepared for an accident, even if the rescue had taken longer and/ or been once darkness fell.
There have been warm sunny summer days in the hills when I have wondered, do I really need to carry a survival bag, hypothermia blanket, torch, whistle etc.? I will never ask myself that question again as the answer is undoubtedly, yes. I might well have needed to use them on Stob Bàn if rescue had been much later.

To my other thought: I have most certainly learnt much from my experience on Stob Bàn and hope too by sharing this experience that makes you ask yourself the question: “Am I as well prepared as I can be for an accident?” If so, this report has been worth doing.


…and finally!

Since starting hill walking almost three years ago, one thing which I have never done before and I cannot explain why I did it this time, but I took a small piece of white quartzite from near the summit and put it in my pocket: a premonition (??)
I now have set myself a goal: when fit again and back on the hills to return with that piece of rock and place it on the summit cairn of Stob Bàn.

The 5cm square piece of white quartzite I plan to return to Stob Bàn with one day

At home three days after two emergency operations to reduce first the dislocation and then stabilise the fracture

My new companion, 'Plonky' to keep my toes warm: designed, crafted and named by my wife as my crutches go plonk plonk about the house!!!

With my very grateful thanks to Garmin International Emergency Response Coordination Centre in Texas USA, Police Scotland and the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team, but especially Jon the Winch Paramedic, Sean the Winch Operator, Kieran Captain of HM Coastguard Search and Rescue from Inverness and his Co-pilot Ron. Their professionalism, skill and reassuring smiles I shall always remember.

Photographs in this report where relevant used with the consent of HM Coastguard Search and Rescue, and the Scottish Ambulance Service

(NOTE: The distance/ascent/time taken are from the start until my accident at 607m on the descent)

[The English Alpinist]

That's certainly food for thought. Thanks for your report. I'm a person who is reluctant to embrace any new technology (never even used a Sat Nav in a car!). Until now, my safety equipment in the mountains is compass, whistle, torch, survival bag and phone - and my strategy has been, basically, do not get an injury! So far it's worked, but I've had a couple of near misses on snowy crags (on the same walk) where I hurt my ankle from a fall but didn't quite break anything, and I was able to continue. I'd have been damn cold that day if I had to wait for rescue. Your experience shows how easily it can happen, even on safe(ish) ground let alone the challenging bits.

[alan54]

Thank you for your reply and I had the same approach to safety on the hills as you do until I became aware of trackers. I never worried when out walking on my own but once I had a tracker it made me realise how vulnerable I had been when walking alone on the more remote hills.
For instance, I had a wonderful day on Beinn Fhada in January when I had the Munro to myself and if it had happened there before I got the tracker then, it does not bear thinking about.
Instead, my wife (who is not a hillwalker) is 100% behind me in getting back to full fitness to a level to get out on the hills as soon as I am able, such is the reassurance she has in knowing I can be in touch if I, or someone else I was with or met, needed help.
There are different PLBs and packages so one to suit everyone’s pocket.

[Mal Grey]

Thank you for relating your tale and glad you are on the road to recovery. Excellent toe warmers.

Its really enlightening to me to see how the Garmin InReach Mini worked in reality. I was a reluctant adopter a few years ago, for slightly different reasons but the same motivation in a way. As a large group of friends and families canoeing into the Scottish wilds for a week at a time, we'd not really worried about rescue. However, we had 2 little incidents that, though we knew it not immediately, had stuck in the younger kids' minds; both were actually after the wild bit of trips and on beaches, and involved kids throwing stones into the sea badly (backwards!) and a simple slip. One involved stitches.
One of the kids, about 11, asked me what would have happened if the stitches incident (he was the thrower, not the throwee, and quite upset about hurting his mate) had occurred in the middle of the trip we'd just finished when we had almost no phone signal for 7 days. That got me thinking and I researched the original InReach Mini and at some point bought one. I then told the kids involved I now had a magic button to call International Rescue and it reassured both kids and parents. Its now part of our kit, everyone knows where it is, and as I only need to activate the account for the times I'm actually in the middle of nowhere, is pretty damn cheap after the initial outlay. Its also been very useful to have messaging on one occasion, and being able to get the weather is also great when there's no mobile signal.

Anyway, I digress, but your excellent report is a great insight into just how the InReach can speed up a rescue, and also, how much reassurance it gives. I admit I've wondered exactly how it would work if I ever had to push the button to Texas (Houston, we have a problem), and your experience (and the sharing of the messages) is really useful showing how quickly it puts you in touch with the local emergency services. Clearly you also did a good job of describing your situation, not panicking, and continuing to think about how you could improve the situation.

Your note about charging your phone also shows some clear thinking. I use the phone app linked to the InReach, which makes any messaging a lot quicker, though the InReach Mini does work as a standalone. Its just more fiddly. So keep that phone battery charged to help.

Many thanks for sharing your experience, and I look forward to the report of you returning your little bit of the summit.

[alan54]

Thanks Mal and you make a good point too about the different packages available. Being able to opt in month-by-month is a really good option for occasional trips like you descibe.

I opted for one of the annual ones, anticipating getting out walking all year round, weather permitting. The contract though is for the device rather than just the "account holder" , so my daughter and son-in-law are using it now until I need it back, when they are planning to get their own. So it is not being wasted sitting in a drawer over the next few months!

You are also right about the sending of messages. I started off using the tracker as a standalone which is slow and fiddly. After a couple of messages, the penny dropped about using the Messenger App on my phone which is so much easier. Something else I learnt!

[gld73]

Almost a carbon copy of my accident a year ago! https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=118250
.... except I didn't have a PLB or anything to raise help without a phone signal.

Hope you make a good recovery. Mine hasn't gone well, still can't walk more than a mile, and I'm having a second operation next week (if it's not cancelled again), but hopefully I'm the exception rather than the rule and you'll be back up Stob Ban by the end of the year

The difference between our 2 reports shows the benefit of a locator device when walking solo if you want a quick rescue!!

[alan54]

Almost a carbon copy of my accident a year ago! https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=118250
.... except I didn't have a PLB or anything to raise help without a phone signal.

Hope you make a good recovery. Mine hasn't gone well, still can't walk more than a mile, and I'm having a second operation next week (if it's not cancelled again), but hopefully I'm the exception rather than the rule and you'll be back up Stob Ban by the end of the year

The difference between our 2 reports shows the benefit of a locator device when walking solo if you want a quick rescue!!

Really sorry to hear of your accident last year. Reading your report shows a lot of similarities in circumstances and if that had been three months ago for me, then I would have been in exactly the same position as you. I hope that others read, or reread, your report along with mine.

We both were similarly prepared for an accident except with that one extra item for me, a PLB. Time will tell how long my recovery will be, but the orthopaedic surgeon said to me getting to hospital and into the operating theatre so soon after it happened (less than five hours) will offer the best chance of recovery.

I wish you well for your operation next week and maybe someday it would be nice to both be fit enough to join up and do our local Munro, Ben Wyvis, together?

[Tringa]

Excellent report Alan and hope your recovery goes well and you are back on the hills soon.

I do most of my walking alone and always leave details of my route with Mrs T but your account show how easy an accident can happen and what rescue would be like without such a device.

As my walking is limited to short periods of the year the monthly subscription is attractive.

All the best.

Dave

[alan54]

Excellent report Alan and hope your recovery goes well and you are back on the hills soon.

I do most of my walking alone and always leave details of my route with Mrs T but your account show how easy an accident can happen and what rescue would be like without such a device.

As my walking is limited to short periods of the year the monthly subscription is attractive.

All the best.

Dave

Thanks Dave for your good wishes and it sounds a monthly subscription would definitely be best for you and others whose walking is limited to holidays etc. .

[Grisu]

good grief! How lucky you've been and thanks for the report, it's always shocking me to read such reports but they are a good reminder. Me too, I always think - why in heaven should I take all this stuff!
Good recovery! I hope you'll be back in the mountains soon!

[alan54]

good grief! How lucky you've been and thanks for the report, it's always shocking me to read such reports but they are a good reminder. Me too, I always think - why in heaven should I take all this stuff!
Good recovery! I hope you'll be back in the mountains soon!

Thanks for your good wishes Grisu and I definitely plan to get back in the mountains whenever I am able.

[Lackadaisy]

Excellent report - really great to see a story detailing the experience of using a PLB. Hope you're recovering well from such an unfortunate accident.
I only heard about PLBs quite recently myself, from a fellow hill walker who was also using the Garmin. As someone with a tendency to disappear off into the hills for a few days at a time on my own, it sounded like something I should invest in. I now have the Ocean Signal RescueMe PLB1. its small, light and just sits in my rucksack. Chose this one because no subscription is required, and for me the messaging functionality was a "nice to have" rather than essential. Hopefully I won't ever need it, but it's just one more layer of preparedness in the event of an accident. I've already had an unlucky accident while climbing on Ben Nevis, which required a rescue from the amazing Mountain Rescue/Coastguard helicopter.. While I was very fortunate that day to be within phone signal and was rescued quickly I've had plenty of time to reflect on how much worse the experience would have been for my climbing partner and I if we had no means of communication!
Best of luck for your recovery, Hope you're back in the hills in no time at all!

[rgf101]

my strategy has been, basically, do not get an injury!

I have a tendency to think the same way, but I try to talk myself into taking stuff I think I'll never need by reminding myself I might run into someone who DOES need it. It's ridiculous but if I think "what if I break an ankle" I go into "no, I won't do that" mode. If I think "what if I run into someone else who's broken THEIR ankle" I'm suddenly "ah yes, I should be fully prepared for THAT"!

Anyway, off to price up PLBs...

[alan54]

Excellent report - really great to see a story detailing the experience of using a PLB. Hope you're recovering well from such an unfortunate accident.
I only heard about PLBs quite recently myself, from a fellow hill walker who was also using the Garmin. As someone with a tendency to disappear off into the hills for a few days at a time on my own, it sounded like something I should invest in. I now have the Ocean Signal RescueMe PLB1. its small, light and just sits in my rucksack. Chose this one because no subscription is required, and for me the messaging functionality was a "nice to have" rather than essential. Hopefully I won't ever need it, but it's just one more layer of preparedness in the event of an accident. I've already had an unlucky accident while climbing on Ben Nevis, which required a rescue from the amazing Mountain Rescue/Coastguard helicopter.. While I was very fortunate that day to be within phone signal and was rescued quickly I've had plenty of time to reflect on how much worse the experience would have been for my climbing partner and I if we had no means of communication!
Best of luck for your recovery, Hope you're back in the hills in no time at all!

Good to hear from you ‘Lackadaisy’ and thanks for sharing your own experience. I hope for others reading your post, as well as the report, it will encourage them even more to add a PLB to their own level of ‘preparedness’ if they don’t already have one.
As you say many PLBs are very small and light, but I keep mine clipped to my trousers rather than on my rucksack. The main reason for that is occasionally I have left my rucksack at a bealach if only a very short climb to the top, to then collect again on the return. If my accident had happened even if a short distance away from my rucksack, I would have a serious problem getting to it to trigger the SOS button.
Thank you for your good wishes and I am now one step closer to getting back on the hills with getting my plaster cast off this afternoon.

[gmayle82]

Glad you were able to get the rescue you needed. Good detailed report on how the whole process of the rescue played out. I bought a similar device a couple of years ago. Now, newer smartphones are starting to incorporate satellite messaging and phone functions, which will be extremely beneficial to walkers.

If you're looking for a positive out of the accident, I bet your tracked hike on your Garmin was your fastest average speed of any hike. Helicopter ride must've pumped up that average speed 😅