Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Two climbers “very, very lucky” to have survived overnight mountain ordeal

Police search and rescue crews found a vehicle belonging to one of the missing walkers at the Glen Tilt car park.
Police search and rescue crews found a vehicle belonging to one of the missing walkers at the Glen Tilt car park.

Two climbers who were missing for almost 24 hours in Highland Perthshire would not have survived a second night in the hills, experts have said.

Around 30 rescuers battled “atrocious” weather conditions on Friday night in the hunt for the pair in the mountains north of Blair Atholl.

The men, who are both in their 40s, were described as “lightly equipped” for the season and had become trapped at 3,000ft on Beinn Dearg in blizzard conditions.

The alarm was raised when they failed to return home at 5pm on Friday. Following an 18-hour search they were found north west of the summit of the Munro by a Coastguard search and rescue helicopter.

They were airlifted to Pitlochry at around 1.45pm suffering from hypothermia.

Stuart Johnston, team leader of Tayside Mountain Rescue, said the conditions on the mountain made for a challenging search.

He said: “The weather conditions on Friday evening were atrocious – high winds, blizzard conditions on the high ground and very, very, challenging for the rescuers.

“Where we found them is an extremely remote area of Scotland – they were approximately 14 miles from the nearest road.

“They had a very, very lucky escape from the mountain.

“They did a very good job surviving the night but they were extremely fortunate to have survived, no question about it. They were mildly hypothermic when they were found but recovered quickly.

“If we hadn’t found them by late afternoon the prediction was they were unlikely to have survived. They would not have survived a second night – they didn’t have enough equipment.”

Stuart also warned of the dangers of relying on mobile phones to navigate in the mountains.

He said: “They planned a route but hit serious weather in the late afternoon and managed to get into navigation difficulties. They became disorientated and headed further north off the mountain than they had intended and got stuck overnight.

“They were lightly equipped for the mountains and a winter journey. A big issue is people using mobile phone mapping software to navigate in the mountains.

“The problem they have is their batteries run down and they have no conventional mapping or navigation skills to get themselves back out again.

“With conventional maps you don’t need batteries.”