Flat battery foils wheelchair user's Ben Nevis climb

A THRILL-SEEKING wheelchair user got into a sticky situation during her world record attempt to scale Ben Nevis when her battery went dead just half way up the mountain.

Sally Hyder had made it to just over 2000 feet when she was forced to turn back after her electric wheelchair ran out of juice.

But despite the set-back, she was all smiles when she discovered that she had still become the highest climbing electric wheelchair user in the UK.

Now the adventurer - who takes on her challenges in the company of three guides and her assistance dog Harmony - plans to give the climb another go in 2012.

In the meantime she aims to abseil off the Forth Road Bridge and sail along the Caledonian Canal in the name of charity.

Speaking about her semi-successful mission over the weekend, Sally said: "It was quite a challenge. There were several bogs that I got stuck in along the way and the terrain was very rough and bumpy. It would be difficult for a quad bike, let alone a wheelchair.

"We drained the ten batteries we had so quickly that when we got to around 2,000 feet we had to make a choice: go down or run out of battery. I actually only got halfway down when the wheelchair ran out anyway. My guides had to tie ropes onto me and pull me back so I didn't go shooting off. You could say it was a little disappointing but I did make a record and I'm very pleased. The team were brilliant and we've raised 5000 for the Canine Partners charity, who provide assistance dogs. That's only half a dog though, so we want to make more."

Then 48-year-old, who developed multiple sclerosis in 1989, experienced bad luck from the start when the wheel came off her 10,000 BOMA - a battery-powered off-road wheelchair - during a test run.

But the mishaps haven't put her off, and Sally revealed that her team are already planning the next attempt.

In the meantime Sally will work on a book she has written about her crazy adventures. She has just completed the last chapter - recounting the Ben Nevis climb - and it is due to be published by Harper Collins in February 2011.

Sally was diagnosed with MS, a degenerative disease of the central nervous system, when she was 27. A keen walker, she had climbed a number of Munros and in 1988 her husband proposed to her at Everest base camp during a climbing holiday in Nepal. Among the Ben Nevis support team were her family, including husband Andrew and her children.