Tim Harper, 38, a journalist from the Scottish Daily Record, died on Sunday 22nd April from injuries received when he fell 700ft down Ben Nevis's No.4 Gully six days earlier. The cause was apparently a cornice collapse. He leaves a widow, Alison. Daily Record editor Peter Cox said: "Tim was an exceptional production journalist, one of the finest in Scotland. His ability, humour and enthusiasm will be greatly missed by all who worked with him." One of the first people on the scene to help when Tim landed was Sir Chris Bonington, who happened to also be on the mountain. He had suffered serious head injuries, and was airlifted to Belford Hospital in Glasgow, where a spokeswoman said his condition was "very serious". A spokesman for the Lochaber MR team said Sir Chris "helped assemble the stretcher and generally assist the rescue." Sir Chris, who was also descending the gully from higher up, told Ananova.com: "As we were coming down we saw blood marks in the snow and we knew something was wrong. At the foot of the gully there was a small group of people surrounding Tim. They knew he had suffered head injuries but they faced a dreadful dilemma. With head or spine injuries the person should not be moved. But because Tim had stopped breathing, they had to put him in the recovery position to revive him. "They did exactly the right thing because he started breathing again. When the alarm was raised, the mountain rescue team and RAF Lossiemouth were magnificent. They were there very quickly and all I can say is that their dedication and professionalism was quite extraordinary." He said that Chris and his fellow climber, Paul Roberts, had been coming down in "textbook fashion" and commented: "My thoughts are with Tim and his family at this moment."