A CLIMBER was saved by a snowdrift after being hurled 600ft down a Highland mountain when hurricane-force winds dislodged a block of ice.
The man slid down a steep section of a peak in the Cairngorms but suffered only a minor leg injury thanks to his soft landing.
He was with a group of climbers tackling the Goat Track in Coire an t-Sneachda yesterday when a large chunk of ice knocked him off the steep face.
The man, who is understood to be in his 40s, then tumbled about 650ft to the bottom of Coire an t-Sneachda – Gaelic for Corrie of the Snow.
His companions rushed to his side, called the police and carried out first aid using medical equipment stashed in a rescue box in the area.
They then fashioned a splint for his leg and protected him from the bitter wind-chill until help arrived.
Conditions were so bad that they were deemed too dangerous for a helicopter to attempt an airlift.
Instead, Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team, Glenmore Lodge Mountain Rescue Team and the Cairngorm Ski Patrol went to his aid and carried him off the mountains on a stretcher in winds of up to 80mph and heavy snow.
Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team member, Iain Cornfoot, said: “Weather conditions were horrendous at the time and we didn’t call for air support because of that.
“We managed to partially take him out on a stretcher then skied him out on a ski stretcher with the help of a Ski-doo for the last part.
“We believe he was climbing a route called the Goat Track when he was hit by some ice from above and that knocked him over and he slid down and sustained a lower leg injury.
“He got off pretty lightly with the steepness of the slope to have only that type of injury. There is a lot of snow still covering the ground and he didn’t come into contact with any rocks.”
Mr Cornfoot added: “A lot of people have been fairly lucky recently. A pair of mountaineers were avalanched in the same area earlier in the week and were relatively uninjured due to the volume of snow on the ground.”
He said it was likely that the ice was dislodged by high winds in the area at the time, as there was “a lot of debris blowing around”.
The team carried the injured man to the Cairngorm Mountain Resort car park, and a waiting ambulance ferried him to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.
Mr Cornfoot praised the rescued climber’s fellow mountaineers for their response to the emergency.
He said: “He was getting cold by the time the team arrived so the other climbers did well to treat him for that and to splint his injury. They had also alerted the police and mountain rescue.”
The incident happened at around 12.30pm and the climber was off the mountain by around 3pm.
North mountain rescue teams say they have faced some of the most extreme conditions they have ever experienced on call-outs this winter.
Last month, Lochaber Mountain Rescue team members were themselves hit by an avalanche and fell through huge cornices of overhanging snow during a 10-hour rescue of a solo stranded climber.
Cairngorm Mountain Rescue has received a series of call-outs over the past few weeks, including several in the area where yesterday’s accident happened.