How rescuers saved the ‘wrong’ climbers

MOUNTAIN rescuers looking for climbers on the UK’s third highest peak found another stranded pair during the search.

Volunteers at Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team were winter training at their base on Thursday night when they got the call from two men who had become disorientated on 4,2 2ft-high Braeriach.

Robert Shipston from Sheffield and David Webb of Portsmouth faced freezing temperatures and feared they would die.

But as rescuers searched in the dark it was two other stranded walkers from Inverness that they found and had to airlift off the mountain. Cairngorm team leader Willie Anderson said: ‘The funny thing was when we were searching for the original two we came across another couple who had no head torches.

‘They were soaked through and they had no way of getting off the mountain and were hypothermic. So we airlifted them off and then we carried on the search.’

Mr Shipston and Mr Webb decided to stay where they were and huddle together to keep warm.

Their phones had run out of power by this point so they used a whistle and a torch in a bid to attract rescuers. But bad weather soon closed in and after several hours the search was called off.

Luckily the pair survived the night using foil blankets to stay alive.

And as daylight broke they gathered their strength and made the difficult decision to try to get off the mountain.

Cairngorm Rescue Team quickly located the pair with help from the RAF search and rescue helicopter and colleagues from Braemar Mountain Rescue Team.

Mr Anderson said: ‘They called for help around 7pm [on Thursday]. They had become disorientated and wandered about for a few hours. It was cloudy, misty, raining, windy and cold.

‘We got to the summit but by now it was dark and we couldn’t locate them.

‘We scaled up in the morning with help from the RAF and Braemar.

‘When daylight came they decided “if we don’t move then we are going to die”.

‘They headed down the hill and when they came out the mist and the clouds some of our guys located them.’

Mr Webb told STV news: ‘Because we had phoned for help it was reassuring to know there were people looking for us. We can’t thank the teams enough.’