Stranded British climber speaks of 'nerve-wracking' low battery fears

Finn McCann and fellow climber Tom Greenwood were stuck up on Mont Blanc in Italy for 21 hours before they were rescued yesterday.

They had reached around 11,000ft when Mr Greenwood suffered a dislocated shoulder and as the weather suddenly turned they found themselves trapped.

Unable to ascend or descend the experienced climbers attempted to contact mountain rescue teams but could not get through so had to send a message to a friend in the UK who co-ordinated teams to save them.

"We have got our friend to thank for the whole rescue really," Mr McCann, from Shrewsbury, said. "We got stranded on this ledge and the only thing we could do was call mountain rescue. We had all the numbers programmed into our phone so we were ready for any eventuality.

"We were prepared to call up the Italian mountain rescue or the French. We were just appalled when we called the numbers and found out that neither worked.

"It was a nerve-wracking moment because we realised if the battery did run out and that text did not get through then we were pretty much all alone on the mountain."

The pair sent a text to their friend in Shrewsbury who rallied the rescue effort. But then sent a message back to say they would have to wait for the cavalry.

Because of the weather the pair could not be rescued on Wednesday and had to spend the night on the small ledge.

Two initial attempts to rescue them failed but they were eventually picked up by a helicopter and taken to nearby Courmayeur, at the foot of Mont Blanc, the mountain rescue team said.

The climbers were stranded at Aiguille Noire de Peuterey.