Hard-working volunteers with the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team, LMRT, could soon have more space to store their equipment.
Plans have been lodged with Highland Council to extend the team’s centre at Glen Nevis Business Park in Fort William.
It is proposed to extend the existing garage at the centre to create more storage space, in addition to changing facilities.
The floor space in the new extension would be 1,277 square feet and the material used for the walls and roof would be the same as those used for the present building.
The team’s centre is close to the foot of Ben Nevis and, while Britain’s highest mountain is the scene of many rescues – some in treacherous and dangerous conditions – volunteers cover the whole of Lochaber including the Small Isles of Rum, Muck and Canna and out to the Knoydart peninsula.
The area boundary goes eastwards as far as the National Trust land of Creag Meagaidh, halfway between Fort William and Aviemore.
The team can also be called out to Rannoch Moor as well as the Corrour estate and the western side of Ben Alder.
To the south, the main ridge line of the Mamore hills forms the border of their area.
The team itself is the busiest in the UK and, as well as assisting climbers and hillwalkers to safety, they have also helped to rescue canoeists as well as Nell the elderly sheepdog, who was stuck in a gorge near Roybridge for 12 days in March.
But she was none the worse for her ordeal when volunteers – who had to use ropes to reach her – carried her to safety.