David Kerr
A woman climber is in hospital having suffered a serious injury after falling in Glencoe.
The 37-year-old was airlifted to Belford Hospital in Fort William after being rescued in tough conditions from the Lost Valley area by Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team on Monday afternoon.
A police spokesman said the woman, who is from outwith the Highlands and islands, had suffered pelvic injuries and remained in hospital yesterday.
She was climbing as part of a pair and was reported in difficulty at about 1.45pm having fallen about 70ft from the Lost Valley Buttress at the western end of the valley.
Two other climbers who were nearby also helped out after the woman suffered her fall.
The area is popular with winter climbers and was described as being of “good quality and offering some hard climbing” by Glencoe MRT leader Andy Nelson.
Mr Nelson said that they had some difficulty finding the casualty because of “typically wintry conditions”.
He added: “We believed she may have suffered back injuries so it had to be quite a delicate job.
“We got her packaged up and stretchered her down to a point where the helicopter could get in below the cloud.
“There wasn’t anything technically difficult but it required a lot of hard work given the conditions.”
The mountain rescue team located her at 4.10pm and took around an hour to take her to the point she could meet with the coastguard helicopter Rescue 951.
She arrived at Belford Hospital shortly after 7.20pm having been passed into the care of the ambulance service.
The mountain rescue team thanked the other climbers in the area who had helped, with Mr Nelson saying he felt the incident had been an “unfortunate accident”.
He said: “These guys are experienced climbers and they were not ill-equipped.
“I think she’s just been unlucky, maybe something came loose and she’s taken a fall.”