Tayside Mountain Rescue team was involved in a dramatic rescue mission lasting 10 hours after a climber broke her ankle on a remote Highland Perthshire peak on Saturday night.
The emergency services were alerted at 6pm by a friend of the 48-year-old woman after she slipped while between 2500 to 3000 feet up Beinn a’Ghlo, near Blair Atholl.
The Tayside Police and civilian mountain rescue teams came together as one unit to make the trek up the hillside in freezing conditions. They discovered the woman whose details have not been released in pain but otherwise unharmed and in the care of her two climbing partners.
Police search and rescue team leader Detective Sergeant Colin MacDougall said, “We mobilised 18 people and it was a good combined effort working quite high up. The weather conditions were good for us because, although it was cold and there were snow showers, it remained clear.
“We had a location from the initial caller so we got the guys up there and she was evacuated down about five kilometres on a stretcher to an ambulance that was waiting for her.
“It was a good controlled evacuation after she had had treatment on the scene from our casualty carers and she was off the hillside by 2am. By the time we had all our gear packed up we were away by 4am.”
Mr MacDougall said the woman suffered no more than an “unfortunate accident” and there was no suggestion she was ill-prepared for her trek.
However, he warned climbers to be fully aware of the treacherous nature of the Scottish mountains and pointed potential thrillseekers towards the Tayside Mountain Rescue website www.taysidemrt.org.uk for a page of advice about taking to the hills.
Earlier this month he had to issue a warning after the “growing trend” of people setting off without the proper skills when five people had to be helped from mountains in Angus and Perthshire in one weekend.