A man who survived a 650ft fall from a mountain with only cuts and bruises was told rescuers arrived expecting to recover a body.
Munro-bagger Chris Elliot was scaling A’ Chràlaig in the western Highlands with his partner Jagoda Penkala when he fell.
The pair took up their new hobby of exploring Scotland’s mountains during lockdown and were trying to complete the seven munros at Glen Shiel.
After completing five on previous trips, the couple had just completed the sixth and were resting before taking on their second of the day.
Mr Elliot said: “It had started out cold that day and then the sun came out.
“We had crampons on, but because the sun had come out I think it slightly melted the snow and I just slipped.”
Rather than a sheer fall, the 52-year-old had the “slide of his life” down the side of the mountain before coming to a stop.
He has little memory of the accident on April 2, except for the moments immediately before he fell and after rescuers reached him.
But Ms Penkala, who witnessed everything, can remember every detail and says she thought her partner was dead.
She said: “For the first week after when I closed my eyes all I could see is his face.
“I was just watching him going down and shouting and there was just no response.
“At that moment I thought he would never come back to me.
“I thought I’d lost him.”
‘I didn’t want to leave the hill’
She called emergency services and a rescue crew arrived on a coastguard helicopter soon after. Mr Elliot was flown to Raigmore Hospital.
Ms Penkala is full of gratitude for the emergency crews who responded to her call for help, saying they went above and beyond.
She originally thought she was facing a long walk off A’Charlaig not knowing whether he was dead or alive.
“The helicopter took him to hospital and because I was OK the local police said I would have to go down myself,” she said.
“I really didn’t want to leave the hill, I thought it was where I was going to have last seen Chris.”
Two other climbers encouraged her slowly down the hill, but the helicopter returned for her a short time later.
“It was so nice of them,” she said.
“Between that moment of Chris falling and the helicopter coming back to me I didn’t know if he was alive.”
Mr Elliot said his rescuers told him they expected to find a body when they received the call-out.
“The first rescuers told me they had expected to find a corpse,” he said.
Shocked medics treated the stricken climber for a large cut on his ribs and monitored him for six days before he was discharged home to recover from his relatively minor injuries.
No permanent damage
Mr Elliot suffered no broken bones and is now recovering at home in Arbroath.
He said: “The only thing I had was a depressed spine, a cut on my side and bruising from my stomach to my knees.
“There is no permanent damage, though. I could have had brain damage or broken my spine.
“I feel so lucky every single day.
“I couldn’t believe I didn’t have a single broken bone.”
However, he has since returned to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, after developing an infection as a result of a kidney stone that was dislodged during the trauma of his fall.
He is currently awaiting an operation to remove it but expects to return to work within weeks.
And the experience hasn’t put the couple off returning to the mountains.
“My only regret is, I didn’t start climbing sooner,” Mr Elliot said.
Ms Penkala is equally excited to return to the hills, adding: “We have a map of the munros in our house and every time I go past I think about where we will go next.
“Hopefully we will complete all 282, but it will be harder now knowing what can happen.”
