A man has died after a fall on Cairn Gorm.

The unnamed 33-year-old mountaineer died in Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, after being airlifted from Coire an t-Sneachda by a helicopter from RAF Kinloss.

Emergency services were alerted at 11.40am today. He was taken from the scene with serious injuries within the hour, but did not survive.

Five mountaineers died in the same corrie, on Cairn Gorm’s northern face, within a period of a little more than two months during the 2006-7 winter climbing season, prompting the mountaineering councils in Scotland, Ireland and Britain to issue safety advice to those venturing on to the winter Highland mountains.

The Scottish Avalanche Information Service forecast for today was for a considerable (level three) risk of avalanche, with white-out conditions on the summit plateau and significant build up of windslab, the most common cause of avalanche in Scotland.

The Met Office had forecast occasional summit blizzards, with strong winds, up to 55mph and a severe wind chill.