Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team
The climber was airlifted from Glencoe on Saturday after getting into difficulty
A climber was rescued from a mountain in Glencoe with hypothermia as the country was battered by wintry weather – but still managed to make the bus home.
The man, who has not been named, was airlifted after becoming stuck on steep, freezing terrain on Saturday.
Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team said the climber was “mildly hypothermic” when they found him and lowered him into position for a helicopter uplift using ropes.
Volunteers later gave him a lift back to Glencoe village in time to catch the Ember E4 service in the direction of Edinburgh.
Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team
The climber made it off the mountain in time to catch his bus in the direction of Edinburgh
The rescue was one of five call outs the team responded to over the weekend.
A yellow weather warning for snow and ice covering much of northern Scotland was in place on Saturday and Sunday.
The Met Office had warned blizzard conditions were likely at higher elevations.
Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team
A yellow weather alert had warned of blizzard conditions on exposed hills
On Sunday, a group of three people were climbing when one fell and sustained head and wrist injuries.
Two other climbers who were nearby abseiled down to assist the person – who was then airlifted to hospital.
The two climbers were helped off the hill by the mountain rescue team.
Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team
Another climber was airlifted to hospital on Sunday after suffering head and wrist injuries
Andy Nelson, team leader with Glencoe MRT, said it was not unusual for winter climbers to be out in numbers during the new year period.
However he said “loose rock” caused by a lack of thawing of the snowy conditions could be blamed for the small spike in incidents.
He said: “Unless you get that thaw and then the refreeze, the rock doesn’t really bind together on the mountain crags, so you could attribute some of the accidents to that.
“The people who have been rescued, they haven’t made poor choices, they have been a bit unlucky really.
“A lot of the paths lower down are more icy than they are higher up, so even a sort of donder up the bottom 300m (984ft) of a mountain could be more treacherous.”
He added: “We would just advise everyone to be well prepared for the conditions.”