Climber: I'm lucky to be alive.

A CLIMBING instructor who cheated death after plunging 700ft from a Highland mountain spoke yesterday of his miraculous escape.

Welshman Max Hunter, 39, escaped with a few stitches and a bruised back after a climbing course went badly wrong for the experienced mountaineer.

Speaking from his hospital bed yesterday, he said: "I can't believe I amalive.

"The best feeling in the world was opening my eyes, seeing daylight and feeling the pain. It told me that I had survived.

"It is the first time I have been involved in a drama like this and I am upset at having lostmy clean sheet."

Max had been leading a party of three novices on Sunday afternoon for his employers, Jagged Globe, when a snow cornice in the Stob Coire nan Lochan area of Glencoe gave way.

Max, who has been climbing for 16 years, plunged into a rock-filled gully.

He was found by Glencoe mountain rescue team in the corrie and flown to hospital.

Max, who lives in Fort William, said: "I knew this gully well and went to check it out. The next thing I knew the snow gave way.

"It was bad luck really. But what happened after that was definitely good luck.

"I thought, 'Oh, my God, this is it.' And I was waiting to hit rocks.

But it never happened. I have been told I landed in the middle of a crop of boulders and didn't hit one.

"Medical staff were amazed all I required was a couple of stitches each to my elbow and knee

"I can't thank everyone enough. And although it was my first trip on a helicopter, I hope I never have to experience it again."

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BRUISED: Max Hunter