Hiker warns others to wear bright colours after smashing her ankle in freak mountain accident

A hiker has warned other hillwalkers to wear bright colours after a freak accident on a mountain saw her smash her ankle and have to be airlifted to safety by rescuers.

Bekah Cork was well prepared for her hike up Sgurr Thuilm and Sgurr nan Coireachan in the Scottish Highlands, with her friends on Saturday.

The 32-year-old from Berkshire had filled her backpack with all the necessary gear for the trip but ended up tripping over a few hours in.

The head of concerts and residencies at the Philharmonia Orchestra in London said she was not walking on complex ground when she fell, but instead a flat area.

However, the incident left her with a dislocated and broken ankle and fortunately the group were able to contact Scottish Mountain Rescue who airlifted her off the hill.

The team worked swiftly to get to Bekah’s location using the OS grid reference given and the whole ordeal was over in just two and a half hours.

Bekah has now urged fellow hikers to be aware of what they need when they go out hillwalking and advised others to wear bright clothes to be easily found.

Bekah Cork was well prepared for her hike up Sgurr Thuilm and Sgurr nan Coireachan in the Scottish Highlands, with her friends on Saturday

The 32-year-old from Berkshire had filled her backpack with all the necessary gear for the trip but ended up tripping over a few hours in

The keen hiker had foil blankets, head torches and several layers with her to keep warm as she waited to be rescued.

Bekah thanked the Scottish Mountain Rescue on Facebook yesterday, writing: ‘To Lochaber Mountain Rescue team, I’ve always admired and respected your work.

‘I’ve always hoped never to need you but since I did you were really the best thing ever. You got to me fast, you were kind, gave me awesome drugs and cared.

‘You’re also all volunteers, but meeting you, you’d never know it. This just makes what you do even more impressive. You’re deserving of every penny that can be raised for you..’

Her post received hundreds of likes and comments from social media users.

Speaking today, Bekah said: ‘We were between the two Munros at Glenfinnan and I slipped on a bit of mud and my ankle just went the wrong way.

‘My friend thought I had ducked out of the way of a bird but I stayed down and they came to see me.

‘One of my friends had saw what happened but the other was ahead and had to come back.

‘I was so lucky that I had extra layers on me because the weather is so unpredictable, I had brought my waterproofs and another jacket just in case.

‘When we called the Police they wanted a what3words which is a geocode system but my friends did not have that app but luckily I did.

‘We had the grid reference and Scottish Mountain Rescue were with me within an hour of me falling.

‘They arrived and immediately began treatment, they gave me some painkillers and as there was some concern about the dislocation, they reset it at the scene.

The incident left her with a dislocated and broken ankle and fortunately the group were able to contact Scottish Mountain Rescue who airlifted her off the hill

Bekah has now urged fellow hikers to be aware of what they need when they go out hillwalking and advised others to wear bright clothes to be easily found

‘The doctors said I suffered a dislocated and broken ankle, it is still broken, the operation is next week,’ she said

‘I was given strong painkillers and some gas and flown to a helipad in Fort William and taken into hospital.

‘The doctors said I suffered a dislocated and broken ankle, it is still broken, the operation is next week.

‘I was discharged on Saturday night and got back to the hotel before going home.’

She added: ‘I cannot speak highly enough of Scottish Mountain Rescue, they were amazing, they were efficient and quick.

‘They actually praised us for having bright clothes on and said it makes it much easier to find people.

‘They were going straight to another job when they dropped me off and these people are partly volunteers which is incredible.

‘They don’t get enough thanks for the job that they do.

‘I hoped never to need them but they were there for me and they did a fantastic job.’

Scottish Mountain Rescue volunteers gave up over 31,000 hours of their time during call outs in 2021.

What is What 3 Words?

What3Words divides the planet into 57 trillion 3×3 metre squares, each of which is assigned three English words. 

This allows for precise location mapping as it pinpoints precisely where the user is, eliminating the need to explain a location in relation to landmarks.   

The number of distinct words needed to cover the planet is 38,485 – the cube root of 57 trillion. 

Two Etonian chess team friends, Chris Sheldrick and Jack Waley-Cohen, raised millions of pounds to fund the website, which is now used by roughly 85 per cent of UK police forces.  

Pictured is Edinburgh Castle, known on What 3 Words as ‘bake cakes tiny’

The pair attracted millions in venture capital funding and said they may take their technology to Mars to enable the red planet to be navigated.

Mr Sheldrick, who was a promising musician, seriously damaged his arm after punching a window while sleepwalking, and subsequently ran a live music business.

He said roadies and delivery drivers kept getting lost because they misread the GPS co-ordinates he gave them, which led him to realise GPS, which works by providing a string of 16 numbers, is a poor way of finding directions because of the high risk of human error.

So he teamed up with Mr Waley-Cohen, 39, to devise a new method of mapping.

What3words divides Earth into a grid of squares measuring 3 metres by 3 metres, with each box given a code devised by an algorithm consisting of three English words.

Nelson’s Column is situated in a square marked ‘this.fantastic.notes’, while Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh is tagged ‘maybe.sling.worth’ and the Statue of Liberty is at ‘then.drill.moth’.

The site uses shorter, more common words for built-up areas and more obscure references for remote locations such as Siberia and the middle of the ocean.