A trio of climbers deep in the Cairngorms narrowly avoided serious injury after narrowly avoiding a massive rockfall.
The three were climbing on the third pitch of the Aladdin’s Couloir route in the mountain range when the rocks came tumbling down.
The incident happened at about 2.30pm on Saturday, April 24.
A large section of the ridge above Corrie an t-Sneachda, near Aviemore, collapsed, sending car-sized boulders hurtling down the 600-foot gulley in which they were climbing.
Kieran Cunningham was with two Edinburgh-based climbers, Rosa Fappiano and Theresa Wald when the rocks started raining down the mountain.
Mr Cunningham is a journalist on Advnture.com and took to his social media page to describe what happened in the Cairngorms.
He told the Advnture website how dangerous things got when the rocks fell.
The incident
Mr Cunningham said: “We decided to rope up and climb the route in pitches because it was the first winter route one of our party had climbed and the first time me and my other rope partner, Rosa, had wielded axes since last winter.
“It was a glorious day and we were all looking forward to getting on some snow and ice before the last of it melts.”
However, things soon turned deadly when “huge boulders” began flying down the gulley where they were climbing.
He added: “I was belaying from the edge of the gulley and heard a scream from below.
“One of my rope partners, Theresa, had already finished the pitch and was beside me at the belay, sheltered by the gulley wall, but our partner, Rosa, was 50 metres below and in the direct fall line of a shower of huge boulders that were flying over the cliff above us.
“I thought she was a goner, but she huddled down and the biggest rock, which was not much smaller than my car, bounced a foot or so in front of her and then over her head.
“A smaller rock hit her arm and she had to climb the rest of the route one-handed, but she’s okay.”
The rockfall was captured in a video by mountain guide Ron Walker of Talisman mountaineering, who was near the base of the corrie when the rocks fell.