FIVE climbers were being treated in hospital last night after a mountain "domino" accident in central Scotland.
The incident on Ben Lui, nearTyndrum, happened when a Frenchwoman, who was climbing without ropes, fell off the mountain's central gully and collided with four other male climbers below her.
Because the men were roped together in pairs, all four of them were knocked off the snowface.
The woman slipped and hit the first pair of climbers, dislodging them from the mountainside. In a tangle of ropes and climbing gear, all three then hit the second pair, who were also dislodged from the snow face. It is estimated the five slid a total distance of 500ft.
All of them were said to be suffering from multiple fractures, but were in a stable condition in the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow. They are yet to be named.
The alarm was raised as the injured lay among boulders at the bottom of the climb by a walker who saw the accident.
The man reported that one of the casualties appeared to be unconscious.
Three helicopters attended the scene, including a Royal Navy Sea King from Prestwick, which was first to arrive.
Killin mountain rescue team, which was also involved in the three-hour rescue operation, said the climbers were fortunate to be alive.
John Morris, search manager of the Killin team, said it was unusual to have so many people involved in one accident.
He said: "All the climbers were in pretty good condition considering how far they had slid. It wasn't a vertical fall, if it had been they would have been dead, but it was still a very steep slide.
"They were all well equipped and experienced and the conditions were excellent, the snow cushioned their fall. In a way the number of people involved actually helped to save them. It was a good ending, " he said.
Mr Morris said he thought the female climber would have died if she had not been cushioned by the snow and men.
He said: "It is a popular Munro for climbers and hill walkers but even experienced climbers can have bad days.
Fortunately the conditions were good. If it hadn't been snowing the outcome would have been much more dramatic."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article