Jennifer Thompson

Not sure if this plea for help has been mentioned in urw previously -
however:

Herewith Stewart Logan's summary of the situation as it stands.  There
will be some members of RHB down again this weekend.  Any further names
to Stewart, please.  Contact details at the end.
 
Roderick 
 
Missing in the Scottish Hills – Jennifer Thompson
 
Introduction
  One of our friends, 65 years old Jennifer Thompson, was working her
way through the list of hills known as Marilyns and has failed to return
from an outing.  The hill in question was Beinn Bhreac (NS053763) north
of Colintraive in Argyll.  It should be noted, however, that the
highest point is on Coraddie (NS050778) approximately one and a half
kilometres further north.  She almost certainly knew this.
 
Background
  Jennifer took the ferry from the mainland to Bute and then the second
very short one from Bute to Colintraive on Friday 16 March.  She bought
return tickets for both ferries.  She stayed Friday night in the
Colintraive Hotel but was told that it was fully booked for the Saturday
night.  The police can find no indication that she tried to find  B&B
lodgings in the Colintraive area for the Saturday night.  Jennifer
indicated to hotel staff that she would climb “Beinn Bhreac” on the
Saturday morning and return to Bute and climb Windy Hill later in the
day if she had time.  She indicated that she would, at any rate, be
down in time to catch the 5.30 bus from the Bute side of the ferry.
  On the Saturday morning, she was seen to start up the track a few
hundred metres beyond the hotel.  She left luggage in the hotel
intending to pick it up later in the day. She was wearing a dark
green/blue anorak.  The track does not go far before the sparse birch
woods and then open ground are reached.  At about 1pm, she phoned a
friend to say that she was approaching the summit, was going well and
expected to catch the 3pm ferry back to Bute to climb Windy Hill.  The
police state that the hill was clear at that time.  The weather had
been clear with a strong wind up till about 1pm when mist and
progressively heavier sleet and snow and a much stronger NNW wind
developed.  It would appear that this happened shortly after she phoned
so that we do not know whether she reached the top in the clear.
  By 5pm, by which time the weather was atrocious and snow was lying on
the hill, the hotel became concerned because she had not returned for
her luggage. An initial search beyond the starting track by two people
using an Argocat proved fruitless so the local police were informed.
  It later transpired that the ferry ticket system indicated that the
return half of her ticket to Bute had not been used and it was not found
in her luggage left in the hotel.  It is almost certain that she would
not have come off Beinn Bhreac and travelled over to Bute with another
ticket intending to return to Colintraive for the night when she had not
organised a B&B.  This is especially so in the deteriorating
conditions. We feel that we can say with almost complete certainty that
she never travelled back to Bute and, as she never collected her
luggage, never came off the hill.  .
 
Hill Terrain
  The whole Beinn Bhreac hill mass is quite undulating with several
widely separated points almost as high as the highest point.  Jennifer
had map and compass.  We think, that she also carried a GPS but it is
possible that she was not too familiar with its operation.  There are a
few rocky outcrops and peat hags and one hill lochan further north from
Coraddie but the main hazard is probably hill burns. There are many of
them and some stretches have deep, steep and rocky ravine-type banks and
waterfalls and pools which are difficult to see clearly from above.  By
late Saturday, it is understood that the burns were in spate.  Almost
the whole massif is surrounding by forests.  A few are of reasonably
sparse birch type trees but the majority, especially to the east and
north are of very thick spruce with very few fire-breaks.  They are
solid to the ground.  With the reasonable weather for most, if not all
of her ascent, it is probable that she got to or close to the summit,
hopefully of Coraddie and not Beinn Bhreac. The likely scenario is that
she drifted off course as the weather changed.  Map work would have
been very hard in the gale-force winds.
 
Initial Search
  The police called out teams on the Saturday night and, with the help
of lights, searched all the obvious ascent routes from Colintraive to
the summit of Beinn Bhreac.  At this stage, they were unaware of the
higher point on Coraddie. They concentrated on river and burn courses.
 On the Sunday and again on the Monday, a large team of over 30
personnel, comprising Police, Arrochar, Oban and RAF Mountain Rescue
teams together with SARDA dog teams, RNLI and Coastguards, searched all
the open ground and burn courses on all areas around Beinn Bhreac down
to the tree line.  When the team learnt of Coraddie on the Tuesday
morning, they extended the search further north as far as the top of the
woods and the open ground on the Colintraive to Dunoon road.  The dogs
were taken round the top of the thick sitka woods and went in where
possible.  Without talking to each member of that team, it is not
possible to say to what extent this was done.  The search used a
helicopter when possible but this was grounded for extensive periods by
gale-force winds.  It would appear that little if any searching was
done within the sitka forests but, from personal experience, we now know
them to be almost impenetrable except via a few streams and fire-breaks.
The major search was called off on Thursday evening.
  As an extra check, the helicopter did an aerial scan of Windy Hill on
Bute.  This hill is far less complex to search then Beinn Bhreac and it
is reasonable to expect that an aerial survey would have spotted
Jennifer. No walking search was carried out but, as mentioned before, it
is extremely unlikely that she returned to Bute.
 
Further search
  An advance group of her friends conducted a search on the following
Saturday, 24 March, and this group increased to 17 on the Sunday.  Over
that two day period, efforts concentrated on 4 main areas during which
there was excellent visibility.
a)      All the hill streams coming down towards Colintraive plus
adjacent open ground.
b)      The streams in the woods east and north of the first large
sweep west of the main road north of Colintraive (NS022771).
c)      In from near the top of these same woods on the track at
Feorline (NS013795) to its end and then over to Lochan na Leirg north of
Coraddie and taking a slightly different line on the return.
d)      All passable stream lines through the forest on the east
side of the hill and north of Braingortan (NS075758) up to just short of
Ardbeg Point (NS062788) were descended.  The upper reaches of many of
these streams above the forest were also searched.  It should be
emphasised that the woods are so thick that, of the 11 or so streams
entering the forest, only 6 could be penetrated and then only with
difficulty.  It cannot be over-emphasised that anyone offering to help
to search should not enter the woods alone. Several of these streams
crossed a poor forestry track (marked on current maps) and the lower
reaches of these were not searched.  A search of the Loch Striven
shore-line was carried out almost up to Ardbeg Point. The byre north of
Braingortan was searched. The gap above Braingortan was walked
thoroughly in its northern stretches but not directly above the house. 
Incidently, the east side of the hill has poor mobile coverage.  It is
patchy but better on the west side.
 
Next Steps
  A small group of us plan to revisit the area this weekend, 31 March/1
April and a larger group will form up on 14/15 April.  We shall
probably complete a scan of the relatively open area above Braingortan,
check the birch woods on either side of the route up from Colintraive,
and extend our search of the eastern burns further north of Ardbeg
Point.  We might also consider the woods further south on the eastern
flank but it is likely that Jennifer would not have spotted the gap
above Braingortan first.
 
What Can You Do?
  If you are going up the hill, it would be very useful if you could
keep close to and search one stream line on the ascent and another on
the descent.  It has all been done already but you might see something
that we have missed as there are lots of trees on the bankings.  I
would appreciate any information that you can pass to me even if only to
say which route you took if you saw nothing.  Do not think about going
into sitka spruce on your own.  It is quite dangerous.  Your
information will be very useful especially if you approach the hill
other than from Colintraive.
 
  If you can make yourself available to join a group at any time,
please let me know. On some occasions I shall be able to make available
my residential caravan 35 minutes drive away from Colintraive.
 
Contact
  I am Stewart Logan and can be contacted on 01698 852414 or 07932637105
  You can pass queries or information to me on:
 bhreac @laighlands.freeserve.co.uk
(no spaces)

Thank-you very much.
 
27 March 2007

--
Martin Richardson
633/1554 Marilyns - aiming for 777 71/118 New Donalds - only 40% to go
88/211 Irish Hewitts - 123, it's easy 27/220 Corbetts - only(!)193 to go