Furious mountain rescuers have blasted a young woman who "could have died" in a blizzard after climbing Ben Nevis in a pair of shorts.
Reckless Sara Albone, 28, scaled Britain's highest peak while wearing shorts and trainers and with no ice axe and without telling anyone where she was going beforehand.
She managed to climb to the summit, but was caught up in blizzard conditions and showed signs of hypothermia including difficulty moving.
Two pairs of male climbers scaling the North Face of the 4,411ft mountain reached the summit at around the same time and saw a drenched and frozen Sara.
They gave her a bag and huddled around her in an effort to warm up the hapless climber and one of the men sacrificed some of his dry clothes for her.
A rescue helicopter could not be deployed because of thick cloud cover and high winds in the area.
So another trio of experienced climbers had to help her down off the mountain.
Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team leader John Stevenson said that they received a call from the climbers on Saturday.
The climbers were urged to take her down from the mountain as "quickly as possible" because it would take rescuers too long to get to the summit to help her.
Furious John said: "It's still a full blown winter up there just now. On Saturday night it could have been about -15C with the wind chill.
"It's just ridiculous going up there dressed like that and it's freezing up there, and being irresponsible means others have to go out of their way to help."
Sara, from Brighton, admitted that she had a really lucky escape and "could have died" if it was not for the bravery of her rescuers.
She said: "All of the people involved were incredibly brave and kind and went beyond the call of duty to help when most people would tell you to go on alone.
"It was a really lucky escape. I think if it had not been for these guys I could have died. I got to the top but started feeling really dizzy and I could not feel my own body.
"I started feeling like I was a bit drunk and got to a point where I could not walk any further.
"The experience has really highlighted to me the need to always pack items that are essential for mountain climbing. If it was not for the guys that helped me Ben Nevis would have definitely been Ben Never."
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