Geograph - photograph every grid square

This small stone-built shelter was the overnight destination for two school groups on a mountaineering expedition on 19th November 1971. One group arrived in deteriorating weather, but the others could not find it in bad visibility and blowing snow. They bivouaced but after a second night out, only two survivors were found by rescue teams. The remaining five schoolchildren and an 18-year-old student teacher died.

A few years later, this and some other high-level shelters were removed.

On this visit in 1975, the shelter was part filled with snow which had either come through the doorway or chinks in the walls. In heavy snow years, the whole structure could be buried, with only the chimney protruding from the surface.