A GRANDMOTHER revealed this week that she owes her life to the foresight of a dreadlocked ex-Tibetan Buddhist.

The experienced guide prevented Carol Mott and her group making the trip to the site of an avalanche in Nepal last month that claimed the lives of 43 people.

Mrs Mott, from Peebles, had decided to take on the trek in the Himalayas as a challenge to herself and to raise money for charity “This man might well have saved me and the group I was with,” said the former council planning administrator. “I was filled with sadness and shock when I heard what happened.” Some of the survivors have criticised the guides for being ill-equipped to deal with the unfolding problems.

But Mrs Mott said: “I realise how lucky we were to have somebody who knew what he was doing. He had experience on Everest base camp.” She admitted that the party she was in could easily have been caught up in the avalanche that struck in the Annapurna mountain range.

On the morning of Tuesday, October 14, Mrs Mott’s group – consisting of two Canadians and 12 from the UK - had woken to be told by their guide that their half-day trip would not be taking place after more than one foot of snow had fallen.

“The guide said to us that we should wait to see what happened with the snow. He told us the section we were going on was liable to landslides and that there could be avalanches,” said Mrs Mott.

“We were all in agreement with that and ending up sitting about in a tearoom waiting to see what would happen.

“I didn’t think anyone in their right mind would have gone out in the conditions but possibly because some of them went early, it wasn’t so bad.” The following day the party woke to clear skies but the guide, after sending another guide ahead to check, decided it would not be wise to go upwards.

“Instead he said we’d have to go down the mountain to Manang – the main acclimatisation village. So that’s where we headed. There were some little avalanches but everything was fine.

“We did not hear anything at first about what had happened above us. The news only filtered through gradually as communications are difficult.

“There’s no such thing as mobile or the internet and the video phone that they have was out of action.

“It’s frightening to imagine what could have happened to us if the guide had come to us and said let’s continue the trek and go upwards.

“We’ll never know whether we would have been caught up in the avalanche as no-one knows for certain whether it actually happened on the route we were due to take.

“It was the Thursday before we finally realised that something had gone seriously wrong.” Nepalese, Israeli, Canadian, Indian, Polish and Slovak trekkers were believed to be amongst those killed.

The severe weather was thought to be parts of the remnants of a cyclone in India.

Most of the deaths happened when a blizzard hit a point on the Annapurna Circuit, a trekking route in the Himalayas that brings thousands of tourists attracted by the high altitude mountain passes and pristine beauty.

Mrs Mott, who has two sons and a granddaughter, first had the idea of taking the 24-day trekking trip as a challenge but then decided she would also try to raise money for Parkinson’s.

Her plan was successful as she has collected more than £1,000 from sponsors that will go towards funding on the disease.

She sings in the Parkinson’s Choir at Marchmont St Giles’ Church, Edinburgh and it was one of their members that gave her the idea.

“I lost my aunt to Parkinson’s in February – she had suffered with it for 20 years,” she said.

The frightening experience in Nepal has not put off Mrs Mott from taking on another similar adventure.

“That was my first trekking holiday and I’d certainly go on one again. I wouldn’t have any qualms despite what happened,” she said.

She revealed that the Himalayas trek was the second time she had taken on a tough challenge for charity.

Several years ago she travelled to a friend’s in Colorado and they cycled more than 500 miles around the state to raise money for Alzheimer’s.