IT'S a debate as old as the hills – and it came back into sharp focus this weekend after the latest climbing fatalities in the Highlands.

What – if anything – should be done to lessen the number of deaths in Scotland's mountains?

Three climbers died after an avalanche in the Chalamain Gap area of the Cairngorms. It was the third serious avalanche accident in Scotland this year. Four people died on Bidean nam Bian, Glencoe, on January 19. Two weeks ago, three climbers survived being swept 150 metres by snow in the Cairngorms.

Last Monday, hillwalker Graham Connell, 31, from Castleford, West Yorkshire, was found dead in the Jacob's Ladder area of the Cairngorms after a fall. On January 26, a 22-year-old student from Essex fell 300ft to his death on Ben Nevis.

Speaking after the latest deaths, First Minister Alex Salmond said: "This is another stark and tragic reminder of the dangers on our mountains. They are one of the most beautiful places on Earth but they can also be inherently dangerous."

The spate of grim news has led to calls for more decisive action. Former MSP and journalist Dorothy Grace Elder says: "I think there should be a period of about a year in which the Mountaineering Council of Scotland for instance, really gets tough."

The council's website, she said, had good information about weather changes. But, she added: "It's wishy-washy on not saying, 'look, this is the death toll in the last x number of years – don't go in bad weather.'"

As others has said this week, she believes people travelling long distances from elsewhere in the UK "might go on [to the hills] where maybe a local person would turn back". She added: "There are risks and risks ... this is a sort of suicide mission in bad weather."

In 2011, Scottish residents made 7.2 million individual mountaineering and hillwalking trips. VisitScotland found 41% of Highland visitors went for hikes or long walks. Against that background, and given the Scottish Government's campaign to get more Scots active, the Mountaineering Council of Scotland's chief officer, David Gibson said restricting access "would appear to be out of all proportion to the issue at hand, if indeed such calls could be enforced."

Restrictions on access would also be contrary to the 2003 Land Reform Act (Scotland), he added.

Gibson said Scottish Mountain Rescue figures indicated that there were 52 fatalities in 2011, but 31 of them were linked to non-mountaineering incidents, which range from water sports, fell running, mountain biking and pony trekking to missing persons.

"Restrictions and extra warnings are meaningless to those who go to hills for freedom," insists Andy Nelson, a hugely experienced mountain guide, and deputy leader of the Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team.

"There already exists plenty of excellent information on weather, avalanche conditions, walking and climbing route descriptions. People can therefore make their own informed decisions - Sometimes things go wrong, as they do while crossing roads or riding bikes."

Others point out that at Chamonix in the Alps, there are 20 to 25 rescues every day in the busy season.

Leading mountain commentator Cameron McNeish said: "The truth of the matter is that mountain rescue statistics show that fatalities are actually decreasing, despite more and more people heading for the mountains.

"It's been a bad time at the moment, I think probably because of all the snow we've had. But things are improving."

He said there might be a case for the English and Welsh mountaineering bodies to tell people that conditions on Scottish mountains were likely to be much more difficult than anything they had experienced in their own countries.

"Someone who has even 10 years' experience of climbing in the Lake District or in North Wales will find the Cairngorms in winter a whole new ball game," he said. "It's like somebody who has never left Scotland going to the Arctic."

l Travel: page 63