Rescuers have blasted ill-equipped hillwalkers for putting lives in danger after two groups of Tesco employees became stranded on blizzard-swept Highland mountains this week.
In the latest incident four men from Manchester were described as lucky to be alive following an overnight ordeal on the UK’s highest peak.
A 26-strong crew from Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team took almost 12 hours to get the hapless party to safety after three of them plunged hundreds of feet over a cliff on the summit of Ben Nevis.
It was the second emergency involving a group of walkers from Tesco in less than a week – and it prompted an angry attack from team secretary Miller Harris, who said the lives of his fellow volunteers and the RAF helicopter crew were put at risk.
He said: “Everyone on the hill and flying were putting their lives on the line for some frankly very inexperienced hill walkers who were not equipped for a winter mountaineering expedition.
“We do not normally criticise casualties as 99.9% of the rescues we do are for well equipped, experienced walkers and climbers who have had an unfortunate incident outside their control.
“However, a line was probably crossed last night which made the risks a little less palatable for both the team and the RAF.”
Tesco has not responded to Mr Harris’s comments, or explained what the climbers were doing on the mountain before they got into difficulty.
One of the four fell 650ft after straying too close to a cliff edge and suffered a serious leg injury.
His companions phoned for help, but before rescuers arrived, two more fell even further down the same cliff.
They escaped with minor injuries thanks to soft snow and were able to keep in contact with their more badly injured friend by shouting to him.
Conditions were horrendous as rescuers set out to find them on Wednesday afternoon.
An RAF Lossiemouth rescue helicopter took Lochaber team members some of the way up the hill, but worsening weather meant it could not take them off.
Team leader John Stevenson, said he had given the group a dressing down and added: “They were on the summit of Ben Nevis where at this time of year there are no paths, nothing, it is featureless. It is just snow everywhere. You really need to be able to navigate and get yourself down.
“If you don’t know what you are doing, you shouldn’t be up there. This group certainly didn’t know how to navigate off the top, that’s why they got lost.
“Their equipment wasn’t very good. As far as I could tell they didn’t appear to have a map. One did have a compass but I don’t think it was working.
“They came down the back way, Coire Eoghainn, and that area has claimed people before. They were very lucky to get away.”
The most seriously injured casualty had injured his hip or leg and was taken to Belford Hospital, Fort William, when he eventually made it off the mountain.
Mr Stevenson said: “He was in a lot of pain. It took us another seven hours to drag him down to the bottom in very difficult conditions. It was really hard going.
“We had to lower the stretcher down using ropes, so that it didn’t slide away, at the same time trying to find the best way down. We couldn’t see much either, we are just going by local knowledge and hoping for the best some of the time.
“It is the same old message – know what you are doing, have the right equipment, know how to use it. And be prepared for a long night out if you get stuck, helicopters can’t fly in whiteouts.”
Last Thursday Tesco store manager Will White, 25, conceded he and his companies were not properly equipped after he and friend Dan Wood, a student, fell more than 1,000ft in the Cairngorms.
They were rescued by Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team. Mr White’s other friend, 30-year-old Chris Niblock, also a Tesco manager, avoided falling.