A WOMAN who survived falling more than 200ft off a Munro has told how she cheated death.

Carole McCrindle, 30, had been climbing with her boyfriend Stuart McMillan, 29, when she took the horrifying tumble.

The Munro baggers had climbed Cruach Ardrain near Crianlarich, Perthshire, but had overrun their time descending the 3432ft hill after taking a different route.

The couple of Shawlands, Glasgow, reverted back to their original path but encountered two massive boulders which forced them to go round them teetering on the precipice.

Tired Carole, a structural draughtswoman, began to feel ill and suddenly fainted, plunging off the edge at 225ft.

Volunteers from the Killin Mountain Rescue Team had raced to the foot of the hill after being alerted to the accident by police at Crianlarich who had been contacted by Stuart.

She was then airlifted to Glasgow's Southern General Hospital by the HMS Gannet Rescue 177 Rescue team.

Carole spent the next two and a half months in hospital where she was treated for a broken ankle after her foot was bent up behind her calf, a broken pelvis, two broken hips and five broken lumbar bones in her back.

She also suffered a lacerated liver and split her head open in the fall which happened in February this year.

Now after making a miraculous recovery, Carole has spoken of her ordeal just days after thanking her rescuers in person.

She said: "When I first met Stuart he told me that mountain walking was a hobby of his and I really wanted to try it with him.

"I fell in love with it too and we decided to climb all the Munros.

"We spent nearly every weekend in the Highlands. The views were spectacular and we loved doing it together.

"Cruach Ardain was stunning and as were about to make our way back down Stuart suggested that we take a different route.

"But we soon realised our time was overunning and it was getting dark. The easiest thing to do was climb back up and take our first route down.

"I started to feel ill and then I fainted. The next thing I remember is waking up and I was lying on the ground. I didn't know what had happened and I just started screaming.

"I couldn't hear anything and I was terrified. I didn't know where Stuart was.

"It felt like I was lying there for ages but finally I saw a helicopter and was taken to hospital.

""I hope that I can someday get my strength back so we can fulfil our dream of walking all 284 Munros."

Carole's painful recovery saw her kept on a special spinal bed for six weeks and fitted with a back brace.

She had to learn to sit up again and couldn't put any weight on her right side.

However she has been told that she cannot go running anymore as her hip is weak.

Last night Stuart, a project manager, said: "Her recovery has impressed everyone, even the doctors, and I am so proud of her bravery.

"It was really great to meet up with the people who were so instrumental in Carole's recovery.

"To thank both the rescue teams in person was something we had been wanting to do."

William Stitt of the Killin Rescue Team said: "Carole was very, very, lucky. I think the fact that there was a helicopter in the vicinity really helped."