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Experienced walker David March falls 330 to his death
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Climber loses leg as stone block crushes him
A man, who fell from a well known mountain spot in Snowdonia, has been confirmed as a BBC Studio Manager.
David March, 36, had been working for the BBC for 15 years in the World Service Department. On 12th October, he was out on a walk as he often did, when he fell 330ft from Devil’s Kitchen in the Ogwen Valley.
The alarm was raised by fellow walkers who saw a walker fall into their path. The group of five called the Mountain Rescue Team who later found his body and air lifted him to hospital.
The accident is believed to have happened at around 18:00 and it has yet to be confirmed what the cause of the fall was. It is thought to have been poor navigation and a low cloud.
Mountain Rescuers said that it was clear the individual was an experienced walker, who knew the area well and was comfortable to be walking there alone.
They finally recovered his body at 20:30 when he was then airlifted by an RAF Helicopter from RAF Valley Anglesey.
The walkers who found Mr March’s body said it was clear his fall had been fatal.
March, from Thornton Heath in South London, was an experienced walker and he regularly visited Snowdonia to tackle its heights.
Devil’s Kitchen is a well known route to experienced walkers and has many different paths and rocks that make the walk more difficult. Many walkers have struggled with the route in the past, with the paths becoming more difficult to see in bad weather or lighting.
There had been another serious incident earlier on that day in the same area. A climber suffered serious injuries when a stone block collapsed on to his leg. He later had to have his leg amputated due to the severity of the injury.
Walkers were at the scene and assisted the climber until the Ogwen Valley team arrived on scene. The climber was later airlifter to a specialist unit in Stoke, where attempts were being made to save his leg.
Ogwen Mountain Rescue spoke of how they had never been called out to an incident as severe as this. They believed the rock had come loose and trapped the climber’s leg, causing horrendous pain and damage.
The climber who is still unnamed had travelled up from South England with a fellow walker.
In the last year there has been over 100 incidents on and around Snowdon, with less than half resulting in death.
