"Adventurer" dies from hypothermia
Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2012 10:51 am
Adventurer who wanted to live like Bear Grylls in Scottish wilderness for a year found dead in less than a month
A man found dead in a remote mountain hut was an adventurer who had planned a year-long Bear Grylls-style survival challenge in the Scottish wilderness.
David Austin, 29, from Derby, was found dead in a 'bothy' by a track worker near Corrour, a remote railway station in Highland Perthshire, on December 31 at 9.50am.
His body is believed to have been lying there for several weeks when it was discovered.
A post-mortem found there were no suspicious circumstances behind his death, which is understood to have been as a result of hypothermia.
In November, Mr Austin had told his family he was heading north to live rough off the land - something for which survival expert Bear Grylls has become famous.
He is believed to have attended several courses in outdoor survival and bushcraft skills over the past couple of years in order to realise his dream, despite being urged by family and friends to reconsider his plans.
It is thought Mr Austin had not even taken a mobile phone with him, leaving him entirely at the mercy of the harsh winter.
A number of personal possessions including a knife and a daily journal were found next to his body.
Last night, his mother spoke of her grief after learning her son's fate.
She said: 'He loved his survival, climbing and that sort of training. I knew what he was going to do but I did not expect this.
'I'm distraught, I can't believe it. You don't expect this and I don't know how to deal with it.
'I'm too distraught to talk about it - there's someone coming tomorrow to sort everything out, but I don't know if I'll ever want to talk about it.'
Police have been trying to piece together Mr Austin's last known movements.
After setting off from Derby, he is thought to have travelled to Glasgow and then on to Corrour, on the West Highland Line, which is the UK's highest mainline station.
He is then believed to have spent his 29th birthday on December 3 alone outdoors, in the first heavy snowfall of the season and may have been heading towards the next railway station at Rannoch when he got into difficulties.
A hostel employee at the Loch Ossian SYHA hostel on Rannoch Moor said: 'He didn't stay here. He told me he'd been camping in the woods on the north side of the loch that weekend, then he just moseyed over to have a look at the hostel.'
Mary McArthur, one of only four permanent residents in the area, said: 'The story we heard was that he had taken a year out from work and was going to live off the land.
'He was supposed to have walked down the line towards Rannoch station so perhaps he decided to take shelter in the bothy. But what happened after that, who knows? We heard he was well equipped and knew what he was doing.'
Mrs McArthur added: 'We heard there were no suspicious circumstances but were not sure if it was hypothermia or a health complaint.
'It's someone's son and a sad way to go, all alone in the middle of nowhere.'
A British Transport Police spokesman confirmed the man had been identified as a 29-year-old from the East Midlands and that there appeared to be no suspicious circumstances.
A Crown Office spokesman confirmed that the procurator fiscal in Perth had recently received a report from BTP but was unable to provide any further details.
Rannoch is a 23-mile long stretch of open moorland between the A9 to the east and the A82 to the west. Apart from walking in, the only access is via the West Highland Railway line that crosses the moor.
The settlement at Rannoch Station comprises three houses, the Moor of Rannoch Hotel and the railway station. The nearest large town, Pitlochry, is 65 miles away.
Survival school instructor Ian Moran, who teaches extreme survival and bushcraft skills, said it was extremely unlikely anybody could survive a Highland winter out of doors living off the land.
He said: 'It would be a tall order for even the most professional person who calls himself a survivalist. Maybe centuries ago, when Scotland was covered in woodland and teeming with wildlife, but not now.'
He said with key core skills - he teaches rabbit skinning, natural navigation and making rope from nettles -- someone should be able to survive 72 hours before rescue, depending on weather conditions.
He added: 'Personally, I have four priorities of survival - fire, shelter, water and food.
'A human body can go three weeks without food so long as it is hydrated, but you have to process or filter water to drink otherwise you get sick.'
and worse .. the fungus and infections.. my time in the tropics seemed to be a non stop experiment in unusual skin diseases and blood borne fevers.
Indeed.
