‘I made a series of mistakes, each building on the last’

A mountaineer from Edinburgh, who had to be rescued on 3,074ft Beinn Sgulaird south of Fort William, wrote: “I thought a lot before posting this.

Not because it’s embarrassing to get rescued (it is) but because we put folks’ lives at risk to look for us and caused others worry because we hadn’t come home. Both of which are inexcusable.

“After climbing down through a number of steep crags, we hit a dead-end as night fell.

“Realising it was too dangerous to continue or reverse our steps in the dark, we spent a winter’s night perched on a small snow ledge before being unceremoniously plucked from the mountain 12 hours later by an RAF Sea King helicopter.”

And among the lessons learned: “Above all, don’t get caught out needlessly in the hills. It wastes a lot of resources and if the weather was less kind it could have been an awful lot worse.”

Another walker told of becoming lost in a terrifying white out in the Cairngorms on Ben Macdui, the UK’s second highest mountain.

“Sometimes you’re doing everything properly but still get caught out,” he said.

Eventually he managed to find his way back but warned: “There’s no getting away from the fact that I had a lucky escape from almost certain death had I gone over that cornice, but was it my skills that saved me or was it luck?

“I’d navigated in a whiteout before, I was using my map and compass, so surely I’d done the right thing?

“Well no. And, as is common with mountain accidents, I made not just one mistake but a whole series, each building on the last.”