SEARCH teams have found the body of a skier buried under tonnes of snow 24 hours after he went missing in an avalanche.
Experienced skier Daniel Maddox, from Clackmannanshire, was found by rescuers buried in 13ft of snow near Glencoe yesterday.
The 41-year-old enthusiast had gone off piste behind Glencoe Ski Centre when the avalanche struck at about 1pm on Saturday. He was swept away and buried.
About 30 people from Glencoe and Lochaber mountain rescue teams, police, the mountain resort's ski patrol and a helicopter from RAF Lossiemouth were involved with the search,
It began shortly after he went missing but was called off when night fell.
The operation resumed yesterday morning in the Etive Glades area of the mountain, where rescuers found the body.
John Grieve, leader of Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team, said Mr Maddox was found under about 13ft of snow and ice.
"We are quite lucky to have found him," he said.
"We were digging through a mixture of snow, ice and stones that had come down, so it was quite hard going."
He said the teams had to dig trenches in order to find the skier, as the avalanche had travelled about 1000ft into a gully and was up to 40ft deep in some places.
"We ended up with about 50 people out there today, with the assistance of two walkers who helped us when we were digging the trenches.
"Two other skiers who had actually been caught up in another avalanche in the same place a couple of years ago and survived also came to help with the search, as well as the RAF Mountain Rescue Team from Lossiemouth."
Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team posted on its Facebook page: "The body of a skier was found earlier today following an extensive search involving many agencies. LMRT would like to extend our thoughts to the family."
Earlier this year, four climbers were killed in an avalanche on Bidean Nam Bian. The mountain is about 10 miles from Glencoe Ski Centre.
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 are thought to have fallen 1000ft in the incident on January 19.
The following month, three climbers died in hospital after being hit by an avalanche in the Cairngorms.
The three were RAF Squadron leader Rimon Than, 33, who was based at RAF Valley, North Wales; Flight Lieutenant Fran Capps, 32, originally from Dulverton, Somerset; and William Currie, 18, from Penzance in Cornwall.
They were airlifted from the Chalamain Gap area to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary on February 14, but died of their injuries.
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