The editor of The Glaswegian newspaper, Trevor Walls, has been killed in a climbing accident on a goodwill mission for a friend, writes Hamish Mackay.
Walls, 51, fell while climbing Buachaille Etive Mor in Glencoe in the Scottish West Highlands.
He had headed up the 3,350ft mountain a day in advance of a Daily Record Mountain Club walk to celebrate a friend’s 50th birthday – intending to leave a bottle of champagne at the summit to be found the next day.
Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team members found the champagne bottle smashed inside his rucksack near his body.
Family and friends plan to scatter his ashes on the mountain.
His wife Lindsey and 15-yearold son Peter visited the scene of his death on Monday.
Edinburgh-born Walls joined the Evening Express, Aberdeen, as a trainee reporter in 1973 – moving to the Edinburgh Evening News five years later. He subsequently worked as a production journalist with the Daily Express in Manchester and the Glasgow Evening Times.
He spent eight years as deputy editor and editor of the Daily Record’s supplements, before becoming editor of The Glaswegian almost two years ago.
He had played a leading role in the Daily Record’s Mountain Club and its expedition to Glencoe on the day after his death went ahead in his honour.
A club spokesman said: “It was a very emotional day but we felt it was the right thing to do and that was what Trevor would have wanted. He was a great friend and we are all missing him dearly.”
Denise West, one of the newspaper’s directors, said: “We are all shocked and saddened by Trevor’s death and he will be greatly missed by all his friends and colleagues.”
The alarm was raised after Walls was reported missing when he failed to turn up for work.
The mountain rescue team was alerted, and with the assistance of a Royal Naval helicopter from HMS Gannet at Prestwick, his body was recovered at the bottom of Easy Gully.
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