Students from Bedlington High School have interview a teacher awarded for a daring mountain rescue, their very own Mr Close-Ash.
Mr Close-Ash is an assistant headteacher at BCHS, but in his spare time, he works with the air cadets in Tynemouth.
In May 2008, he and another of his staff took a group of 6 air cadets to climb the Pic du Canigou in the French Pyrenees. The mountain, over 2700m high, was to be the highlight of the trip.
On the day of the summit climb, Mr Close-Ash and his team came across two injured men who had fallen over 300 feet from a snow covered ridge to the rocks below. We asked him what his initial thoughts were, "One of the cadets pointed out the blood in the snow and I immediately knew that something was wrong. We spotted the two men lying in the snow and to be honest, my first thought was that they must have been killed because of the seriousness of the fall."
Luckily, both men were still alive and thanks to the quick thinking of Mr Close-Ash and his cadets, they remained that way. Once he had done some first aid on the men, Mr Close-Ash turned his attention to the other 5 men stuck on the snowy ridge above him. Using his ICE axe he cut steps into the snow to get to them and using his rope, he guided them all safely down.
For his part in the rescue, Mr Close-Ash received the Life Saving Medal of the order of St John, his cadets and other member of staff received life saving awards too! We think that it's cool that one of our teachers is a hero!
The BCHS School Report Team