Five Finger Gully on Ben Nevis. Photo: Richard Webb CC-BY-SA-2.0
Four walkers were airlifted from the UK’s highest mountain after getting lost in the dark and straying perilously close to steep crags.
Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team was alerted by police after the group called for help from the summit plateau of Ben Nevis yesterday.
The walkers had no torches and attempts by the rescue team to talk them down by a safe route were unsuccessful.
A Royal Navy Sea King search and rescue helicopter from HMS Gannet in Ayrshire flew to the scene and the walkers were found near the top of Five Finger Gully on the mountain’s south-western edge.
The helicopter crew picked up the four and flew them to the rescue team’s base in Glen Nevis.
The 800m drop of Five Finger Gully is one of the rescue team’s known blackspots for accidents, with walkers passing close to its top on the main track up the 1,344m (4,409ft) mountain.
Alan
28 March 2014A free helicopter ride. ----whoopee !! ----
Darkness does not arrive instantly, there was plenty of time to turn around earlier. We are in Scotland, on a walking holiday, and knowing the Ben, there will be plenty of snow and ice well, well before the summit
In the Alps they would have been charged 2-3 thousand Euros for that ride
Mike
28 March 2014Seriously, they were airlifted? No attempt by MRT to go up and find them and walk them off the hill? I thought that was the regular course of action and what they train all the time to do... if the helicopter can find them then so can highly-trained, experienced MRT members. Is there something I'm missing here?
Val
28 March 2014https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lochaber-Mountain-Rescue-Team/126730547376157
MRT did find them Mike and acted as they felt appropriate
Russ
28 March 2014Mike. The safest way for the MRT is to get to the lost people as soon as possible. If the aircraft is available why not use it. The RAF have to train so many hours per month and this would count as training. The team had a SARLOC fix on the group (Accuracy: 5m, Alt:1247m, 2014-03-27 19:24:29, NN157712) so the aircraft could fly straight to them.
Russ (Ex MRT)
David Jones
28 March 2014I wonder what time they started out. I expect there's a smartphone app that tells you the time the sun sets - for those who can't be bothered to check the day before by looking out of the window at dusk.
sean
28 March 2014Big thanks to the mrt and helicopter rescue team ! Yet again sadly ill equiped walkers on the ben thats still in winter condition. Shame on you , but hopefully a valuable lesson learned. No loss of life or injuries . May bean Iidea to go on a few navigation and winter skills course, and buy some head torches !
sean winter ML
Carl
29 March 2014Yes no torches, wasn't going to stay half the night, we should have done more homework I totally agree. The compass we had became faulty & we ended up in a white out, wandering around in those conditions is not good & very frightening.
When you see the torches of the mrt coming towards you it is the best feeling in the world. I also had retainded a injury to my ankle & one of the mrt guys carried me down to a safe point to be airlifted, these guys do a great job & I for one will be forever in there dept, thanks guys. And a great thank you to the helicopter crew.
Anyone who is thinking of going up Ben Nevis please make sure you really do your homework & allways take backup equipment.