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Camera lost on Ben Nevis returned after “digital detective work”

Peter Chandler on Ben Nevis
Peter Chandler on Ben Nevis

A Lochaber mountain guide and his wife have reunited a tourist from England with the camera he lost while making his first ascent of Ben Nevis.

Hampshire-based chartered surveyor Peter Chandler was heartbroken when he lost his camera about three-quarters of the way up Britain’s highest mountain.

He and a friend continued their trip to the summit, but Mr Chandler thought he had lost all his photos of the 4,409ft mountain and their walk up the West Highland Way from Glasgow before they arrived in Fort William.

The 58-year-old was amazed and delighted when he had a phone call a couple of weeks later to say it had been found by mountain guide Keith Melton, 43, and his 35-year-old wife, Davina, had turned “digital detective” to track him down so they could return it to him.

The couple, who run Glencoe Independent Hostel, were keen to return the favour as they lost a camera while on holiday in England about three years ago.

The person who found it tracked them down via Belford Hospital at Fort William after finding a scan of the couple’s then unborn son, Samuel, on the camera.

Samuel is now aged three and Mrs Melton is expecting their next child in four weeks time.

She said: “Keith found the camera on the Ben and brought it home.

“I wanted to make sure this person also had a happy ending, so I went through the photos and found some images of buildings.

“One showed the front of a shop with a phone number on it, so I called the number and they contacted the chartered surveyor and gave us his address. I then posted it back to him.”

Mr Chandler said he thought he had lost the camera while putting on extra layers of clothing when it became colder on the way to the summit.

He said: “I soon discovered that I didn’t have it any more, but the wind was very strong and it was very cold so I didn’t want to hang around for too long looking for it.

“We went on to the summit, which was completely covered in snow, but I didn’t have my camera so I couldn’t take any photographs and I really didn’t think I would see it again.

“I had been back at work for a week or two when I got an e-mail from one of my clients saying had I lost my camera and he passed on my address to Davina.”

He added that he was absolutely delighted to get it back and very grateful to Mrs Melton for the “digital detective work” she did to track him down.

Amazingly, the camera was fine, despite the fact it had been raining heavily when he lost it, and he was able to retrieve the photos of his trip.

“There were dozens of photographs taken of the long-distance walk through breathtakingly beautiful scenery, ending with the hard climb from the north side of Ben Nevis, so I was gutted when I thought they were lost for good,” said Mr Chandler.