Three Men Airlifted After Scottish Avalanche

Three men have survived falling 150 metres (450ft) in an avalanche in the Scottish mountains.

They were airlifted to hospital with leg injuries after they fell in the Coire an t-Sneachda area on Saturday.

Cairngorms Mountain Rescue said they were all wearing helmets which helped them avoid life-threatening injuries.

Training officer Al Gilmour said: "The avalanche involved three men who were carried about 150m over rocks but they were wearing helmets and, from accounts of the rescue personnel on the hill, that probably saved them and they got away with leg injuries, although one of them may have a particularly serious lower leg injury.

"I saw one of the helmets of one of the guys who was rescued and it's got quite deep scratches along the side. It was only the three men involved and at no point were they under the snow they were pushed along on the surface."

One of the men suffered two broken ankles in the avalanche.

It was the second avalanche in the region on Saturday, with two people uninjured in the first which was reported around 11am.

Recent weather in the Cairngorms had raised the avalanche risk to "considerable".

"Recently we've had a lot of wind and there's been a fair bit of fresh snow so there's been a bit blowing around," Mr Gilmour said.

"The avalanche information service forecast a considerable risk of avalanche above 900m, pretty much from east through to south west facing slopes and both of the avalanches today happened around east facing areas at altitude."

The three mountaineers were taken to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness. No one else was injured in the incident which comes just two weeks after four people were killed in an avalanche in the Highlands.

Hospital doctor Rachel Majumdar, 29; PhD student Tom Chesters, 28; Christopher Bell, 24, also a PhD student; and 25-year-old junior doctor Una Finnegan died after they were caught up in an avalanche in Glencoe on Saturday January 19.