A WOMAN, who fractured her spine and knee after falling 800ft while climbing in Glencoe, is expected to be able to walk out of hospital within a matter of weeks, medical staff said yesterday, writes William Tinning.

Doctors and rescue team members said Ms Sarah Woodroff, 20, from Durham, who slipped on Tuesday afternoon while descending Bidean Nam Bian with a male companion, was lucky to be alive.

A spokesman at Glasgow's Southern General Hospital yesterday described her condition as comfortable.

''She is a very lucky young lady. She has broken a bone in her neck but has not damaged the spinal chord or suffered any neurological damage,'' the spokesman said.

''She will suffer no permanent damage from the fall. She is expected to be able to walk out of hospital in two to three weeks.''

It emerged yesterday, that her companion Alec Bowden, 20, also a student, from Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, tried to raise the alarm but was unable to descend the mountain due to failing light. Passing climbers heard their calls and alerted the rescue services.

Ms Woodroff, described as an experienced mountaineer, was airlifted to Belford Hospital, Fort William, and later transferred to the Queen Elizabeth National Spinal Injuries Unit at the Southern General, where she was treated for fractures to the cervical spine and left knee cap.

Mr Paul Williams, secretary of Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team, said yesterday that Ms Woodroff slipped and fell down a steep snow-covered slope just below the summit of the highest peak in Glencoe, and her injuries could have been far worse.

''If the snow had been rock hard she would have gone off like a rocket, but as it was, the snow was fairly soft,'' he said.

Although weather conditions at the time were generally mild the rescue operation was hampered by mist, making it difficult for the rescue helicopter from RAF Lossiemouth to land.

Warrant Officer Eddie Pratt, from the RAF rescue co-ordination centre, said: ''It was a long way to fall. She is a lucky woman to be alive.''

Ms Woodroff is a second-year geography student at the University of Durham's Grey College and is a member of the university's mountaineering club.

Meanwhile, a search instigated following fears that climbers might have been caught in an avalanche in Observatory Gully at the foot of Ben Nevis was called off last night without finding trace of anyone.