It was the longest two minutes and 55 seconds of a lucky climber's life.

The man is in hospital after being the subject of a dramatic rescue after a fall in the freezing Cairngorms.

Video footage shows how the climber was winched 296 feet - the full length of the team helicopter's winch cable for the operation on Wednesday.

They said the turbulent conditions meant it was safer to lower an Inverness Coastguard winchman 90m (296ft) to the stricken climber.

The rescue. Source: Maritime and Coastguard Agency

The lucky climber got away with what is suspected to be a broken ankle and was flown to Inverness' Raigmore Hospital for treatment.

The Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team praised the "great flying" of the team on the helicopter - - which was out training at the time - and took a little over 10 minutes to arrive on scene.

They arrived in the nick of time at around 4pm, before conditions on the snow clad mountains worsened.

An Inverness Coastguard helicopter crew spokesman said: "Trying to land a helicopter in these conditions is just not going to happen.

"Getting any closer to the mountain and we would have risked causing an avalanche. It must have seemed like a long time for us to reach the climber but this was the safest thing we could do under these treacherous conditions.

"This was a great team effort between us and the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team, who we think are real heroes for bearing the conditions so well and taking the second casualty off the mountain."

A second climber, who was the injured man's climbing buddy, was uninjured but had to be assisted down the mountain by the Cairngorms Mountains Rescue Team.