Three climbers were transferred to hospital – two with serious injuries – following two avalanches in the Cairngorms.
Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team (CMRT) volunteers responded to two “human triggered avalanches” in the Coire an t-Sneachda area, in the Northern Cairngorms, this morning.
CMRT leader Iain Cornfoot told The P&J they were called to rescue three climbers just before 10am.
Not long after, around 11:30am, they were made aware of another two injured climbers about 400-500 metres from the first location.
RAF Valley and RAF Lossiemouth crews training in the area assisted with the second operation, which lasted five hours.
The two climbers were airlifted to hospital with multiple injuries.
The CMRT leader has warned of the “considerable” risk of avalanches on Wednesday.
Five climbers rescued after Cairngorms avalanches
Mr Cornfoot explained that human triggered avalanches are caused by someone’s body weight.
He said they were called to the first incident shortly before 10am.
He said: “Three climbers managed to walk off with assistance, one was taken to hospital but I’m unsure what the injuries were.”
The team then headed down to help the two other climbers.
“Luckily there were RAF teams training in the area and they attended the second incident.
“They gave emergency first aid and began stretchering out the injured climbers.”
The CMRT leader said the second climbers were more seriously injured than the others.
He continued: “There were assets from the Scottish Ambulance Service including two air ambulances and both were taking to hospital.
“They were treated for multiple injuries; the rescue operation took five hours.”
A total of 12 RAF members and 17 CMRT volunteers took part in the operation.
Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team leader warns of avalanche risk
Today’s operations were the second and third rescues in just the last three days, as two climbers were also rescued after an avalanche on Sunday afternoon.
The pair was swept 164ft after being hit by an avalanche in the Mess of Pottage area of Coire an t-Sneachda.
They were airlifted to Glasgow hospital.
Mr Cornfoot is warning mountaineers of the current avalanche risk.
The 45-year-old expert, who joined CMRT aged 15, said: “A moderate avalanche forecast has increased from moderate to considerable for tomorrow.
“I think people think that because of the moderate or low avalanche forecast there’s not really much hazard.
“Right now, we don’t have loads of snow in the mountains so it’s very hard to generate big avalanches but there are these small avalanches that can take you off your feet.
“There are safe areas you can go to with very low avalanche risk and they are detailed in the avalanche forecast but that it’s quite changeable right now with the high winds making a lot of snow drift and then accumulating leading to avalanches.”
Conversation