Ketchup Calls In Mountain Chopper

Dozens of tourist trapped in desperate conditions on a 9000-foot mountain were saved by bottle of tomato ketchup report lots of different media.

That's your first aid kit, that is...

The families, seven of them, were in the Maluti Mountains when they became stranded near South Africa's highest pub. Mountaineer or vet, Ted - or Tod, depending on who you choose to believe - Collins struggled through snow drifts to reach the tourists commenting that the 55 kph wind chill produced temperatures equivalent to minus 30 C and saying they were in constant danger of being blown over a cliff.

Collins then used the ketchup to mark a huge red 'H' in the snow enabling a South African Air Force chopper to located the party. Annanova quote pilot Lieutenant Steven Lownie as saying: "That tomato-sauce H was excellent. It was like DayGlo."

The tourists were airlifted to safety and all was well, thanks to good old tomato sauce. Shouldn't you have a bottle in your rucksack?

Ananova story

How to make your own ketchup

Curiously appropriate news from Heinz

If you can't be bothered, this is apparently the new Heinz TV ad:

'Ice Station opens in the Antarctic, where a rescue team is battling through snowdrifts towards a scientific research station. They enter the seemingly deserted complex, where starving people are lying around on the floor. The mystery intensifies when they discover lots of food. Then an empty bottle of Heinz Tomato Ketchup reveals why the people were going without eating. The strapline is "You can't eat without it".Hmm... uncanny, they obviously used the last of the ketchup signalling for a helicopter.