Worst Mountaineering DISASTER That Killed 6 School Students In ENGLAND || Cairngorm Disaster

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Cairngorm Plateau Disaster 1971

On the night of November 21, 1971, six teenage children and their two school teachers found themselves stranded in a snow mountain in the middle of a winter. At that point, obviously, they weren’t aware that they would be remembered in the history of mountaineering forever, but for no good reason. Its been fifty years, yet this incident is still considered the worst mountaineering disaster in British history. The Cairngorm Plateau Disaster.

On November 20, 1971, a group of 14 teenager pupils with Ben Beattie, a 23-year-old outdoor education teacher, and his 21-year-old partner Catherine Davidson started their journey from Ainslie Park, a large secondary school in Edinburgh, for an outdoor educational trip to the Cairngorm plateau.

The Cairngorms Mountains are one of the deadliest mountains in Britain, getting their name from the 4085-foot-high Cairn Gorm Mountain, which overlooks Aviemore, the main town in the area. Long glacial valleys deeply crisscross the central region, which is a high granite plateau at about 3,900 feet. Between two of the valleys, Cairn Gorm and 4,295-foot Ben Macdui, the second-highest in the British Isles, are the main summits. The Cairngorm plateau spreads over 4528 square kilometres in area. It’s not just wide; it’s high too! Five of Scotland’s six highest mountains lie within this plateau. This plateau has breath-taking scenic beauty, and it’s home to some of the most iconic wildlife species, like ptarmigan. The mountains are popular for hill walking, ski touring, and climbing.

Now coming back to our school group.
Both Beattie and Davidson, the leaders of the expedition, were experienced mountaineers. Overall, Beattie’s experience in the Cairngorms in winter was very limited. Beattie's girlfriend, Catherine Davidson, had twice been in Cairngorms in the winter. She was a final-year student at Dunfermline College of Physical Education and was approved by the school to help run the mountaineering club. They were joined in the expedition by Sheelagh Sunderland, an 18-year-old trainee instructor from Lagganlia.