Climber, 53, cheated death when an AVALANCHE cushioned his 600ft fall down a Scottish mountain
- Richard Tiplady, 53, who plunged 600ft down a mountain cheated death
- Injuries so severe rescuers said he looked like he was ‘savaged by mountain lion’
- He underwent a two-hour operation at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle
A climber who plunged 600ft down a mountain cheated death after an earlier avalanche ‘cushioned’ his fall – preventing him going over a cliff.
Richard Tiplady, 53, suffered a broken neck and elbow but was able to contact rescuers and was found within an hour of his fall.
His injuries were so severe rescuers told him he looked like he had been ‘savaged by a mountain lion’. Mr Tiplady, a lecturer in the Scottish Episcopal Church, described his fall as ‘like a toboggan run’ and praised Cockermouth Mountain Rescue Team for finding him so swiftly.
Richard Tiplady, 53, (pictured) suffered a broken neck and elbow but was able to contact rescuers and was found within an hour of his fall
The experienced mountaineer had been searching for a route to the summit of 2,900ft Pillar in the Lake District when he slipped on March 5.
Mr Tiplady, from Glenboig in North Lanarkshire, who had been climbing with a friend, fell more than 600ft before he eventually came to a halt in snow left by the avalanche. It was just 20ft from the edge of another precipice. Speaking from his hospital bed, he said: ‘I had been going back to reassess my route to the summit when I slipped.
‘I attempted to prevent the fall by embedding my ice axe in the snow, but unfortunately lost hold of it.
‘The next thing that I knew my hands were above my head and I was sliding downwards. During all of this I could hit a rock or something. I was just in pure damage limitation mode.’
Mr Tiplady suffered a fracture in his neck, broke his elbow, chipped the bone in his ankle and suffered three deep gouges to his head, requiring more than 60 stitches.
He said: ‘I was bleeding heavily from the head. There was blood all over the snow. The rescuers said I looked like I was savaged by a mountain lion when they found me, I had three deep claw grooves in my forehead. I managed to call the emergency services and use Ordnance Survey co-ordinates to give them my exact location.
‘The helicopter arrived within 45 or 50 minutes. I used my headlight to act as a beacon to attract them. I never thought they would be with me so quickly.’
He underwent a two-hour operation at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle on Monday and is due to be discharged today.
Mr Tiplady, has one son with his wife Irene, 54, and they are foster carers. He added: ‘Having become a customer of the mountain rescue teams, it is incomprehensible what they do. The level of care and professionalism among them was remarkable. I can’t praise them enough, they do so much for the mountaineering community.’
Cockermouth Mountain Rescue Team called it a ‘serious, potentially catastrophic fall’, adding: ‘As he said himself, he pretty much hit everything on the way down. Thankfully this story had a happy ending.’