Winter hills take their toll

Good snow cover – but 10 deaths

Ten people died on Scotland’s hills in the first three months as the mountains experienced some of the best snow cover in years, official figures have recorded.

Scottish Mountain Rescue (SMR) said it was “very saddened” by the recent fatalities of hillgoers and paid tribute to the efforts of rescue teams.

SMR said the vast majority of hill-goers enjoyed Scotland’s hills and mountains in “total safety”.

Mountaineering Scotland said thousands of people had been drawn to the hills due to extensive snow cover.

The previous winter was considered poor in terms of snow cover and the weather was often mild. SMR represents almost 30 mountain rescue organisations. Lochaber, Glencoe, Cairngorm and Tayside mountain rescue teams left the body in 2016.

In gathering its statistics, SMR takes winter as being from January 1 to March 31. These statistics show that winter fatalities in the previous five years were eight in 2013, seven in 2014, five in 2015, six in 2016 and just one in 2017. The last two years covered SMR affiliated teams only.

Kevin Mitchell, SMR’s vice-chairman, said: “Scottish Mountain Rescue is very saddened by the recent fatalities of hill-goers throughout Scotland over the winter and our condolences go to their families.

“The historical statistics do not show any significant pattern in the numbers of fatalities possibly due to the variable nature of the conditions over a number of years and how that effects hill activity.

“The vast majority of hillgoers enjoy our fantastic remote places in total safety and incidents are thankfully rare.”

He added: “We would like to pay tribute to the over one thousand volunteer members of Scottish Mountain Rescue teams who are available 24/7 to assist hill-goers.”