Hopes were fading last night for a 23-year-old hillwalker who has been missing on Britain's highest mountain for three nights in what rescuers described as "a needle in a haystack" search.

A rescue team leader described the conditions on Ben Nevis as "atrocious" with four feet snow drifts and blizzard conditions.

But rescuers looking for Kyle Knox still had to advise poorly equipped walkers to turn back from their own treks.

A massive search resumed yesterday (wed) for the Londoner who was attempting to scale Ben Nevis in minus 7C blizzards and 70mph gusting winds.

He was reported missing after failing to return to his accommodation in Fort William on Tuesday.

More than 40 mountain team rescue members searched for him after calling off the first search on Tuesday night.

John Stevenson, leader of Lochaber Moutain Rescue Team, which used two new six wheeled ATVs to get members up part of the 4409-feet high mountain, said:"It is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

"The snow is drifting, three to four feet in places, the wind is gusting strongly and the temperatures are very cold. The conditions are atrocious and awful. There is so much fresh snow it is hard to find anything.

"We have been all over the mountain, to the summit, everywhere we can think of, but cannot find any trace of the lad. It does not look very good given the time he has been missing.

"I don't think he was an experienced hill walker and it is difficult to know exactly what equipment he had with him because he was on his own.

"The conditions have been bad. When we started looking for him on Tuesday we even came across some other walkers who were out on the hill who were poorly equipped and we advised them to turn back. I would not want to be stuck out there, the wind is causing blizzards and the visibility is poor a lot of the time."

Lochaber MRT and a RAF search and rescue helicopter from Lossiemouth had joined the search.