THE only survivor of an avalanche that killed three on Ben Nevis has admitted his group may have shown a “dose of zeal” when they tackled Scotland’s highest peak in terrible conditions.

Swiss climber Mathieu Biselx, 30, is recovering in hospital after he and three friends were swept away by a wall of snow on Tuesday.

The tragedy sparked police calls for care in the Highlands with one senior officer telling mountaineers that “nothing is worth risking your life for”.

Speaking from his bed at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth hospital, Mr Biselx came close to expressing the same view to Switzerland’s 24 heures newspaper .

Asked whey he and his friends had been inprudent, he said: “It may be the group effect, the fact of being on holiday, that we did not know the place, maybe a dose of zeal.

“I think of my mates, their families ... We knew that the danger was pretty marked. We consulted guides on the spot, but that was not enough.

“This is running through my mind and I know that, psychologically, I will suffer when the morphine wears off.”

Earlier Mr Biselx, who is the president of a local climbing club in the Valais canton, told another newspaper , Le Nouvelliste, what had happened.

He said: “We arrived Sunday evening in Scotland. It was between 12 and 1pm when everything rocked.

“We were not very high and all of a sudden we heard a noise. We turned around and two seconds later, we were swept away by heavy, compact snow. I lost consciousness and when I woke up, only my head and one arm came out of the snow mass.

“I have seriously injured both legs. My back, one shoulder and one arm are affected, but I’ll get out of it. While my friends, fathers. This is a terrible drama.”

His three lost friends were 33, 42, and 43 years old. Two were French and one Swiss.

Another Swiss newspaper, 20 minutes, contacted Mr Biselx’s club, SAC in Sion. “This is not the first time we have lost somebody close because of an avalanche,” an unnamed member told the paper. “But it is just as much a blow. It’s a tragedy. The whole club is in shock.”

He defended the climbers from criticism or suggestions they should have turned back in bad weather. “These were extraordinary people, very experienced mountaineers,” he said. “This should never have happened to them. The only thing responsible is fate.”