MOUNTAIN rescuers have issued a warning to climbers following a series of incidents across Scotland’s hills.
Volunteers have faced a busy start to the season with two avalanches, medical deaths and “very challenging” rescues.
We previously told how the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team (CMRT) saved a person who had become stranded from their party.
Two people stranded in Glen Tilt also had to be escorted to safety after becoming stranded in heavy snow.
Full team call out last night at 17.30 for a climber who had become separate from their party. The climber was located in the boulder field of Coire an t-Sneachda very cold and suffering from exhaustion. pic.twitter.com/md5NkfB3Dr
— Cairngorm MRT (@cairngorm_mrt) December 31, 2023
Police Scotland’s national lead for mountain rescue Matt Smith said there were around 10 more rescues last month than in December 2022.
“It’s not so much the number. The severity of the rescue tends to be far greater in winter,” he told the BBC.
“Even in the last week, volunteer teams have been out for a huge amount of hours overnight to bring people off the hills.
“Winter seasons are always quieter than summer ones, but for us we’ve seen a number of significant events.”
At the start of December, rescuers searched avalanche debris on Ben Macdui in the Cairngorms following concerns casualties might be buried.
Smith said the extremes of weather and lack of daylight hampers rescue efforts and “make things really difficult”.
He added: “What the teams come up against is exactly what walkers or people that are venturing out will come up against.
“Mountain rescue teams have had to deploy in very challenging conditions, for long periods of time, to help people that have become injured or lost, or needed help.
“They face some really long, dark, cold nights to get these people off the hills.”
In 2022, there were 636 incidents and 843 call-outs on Scotland’s mountains, according to Scottish Mountain Rescue.
Smith continued: “The rescue teams in Scotland are incredible, the level of dedication and professionalism, it’s just second to none.
“They are there to help people, but it doesn’t mean that it’s easy, and it doesn’t mean that necessarily it’s enjoyable to go out into the wilds and extremes.
“Lots more people will be venturing because we’ve seen a huge increase across the summer, so they will be tempted to do so in winter.
“But they need to understand the consequences are far greater.”
