Climber dies during rescue bid

Police are investigating a new tragedy on Scotland's mountains after a climber died despite an attempt to rescue him being mounted. It takes the death toll so far this year to 11.

The climber fell 164ft to his death in the Raeburn's Buttress area on the north face of Ben Nevis, Britain's highest mountain, on Monday.

The accident was witnessed by his climbing partner, who raised the alarm. The victim, believed to be from the Fort William area, died during the rescue operation. Police inquiries into the circumstances are ongoing.

Two helicopters, from RAF Lossiemouth and HMS Gannet at Prestwick, and 18 members of the Lochaber mountain rescue Team headed to the scene just after 12:30pm.

A Northern Constabulary spokesman said: "During the rescue operation the man sadly died. Police are now carrying out inquiries into the incident.

"The man will not be identified until all next of kin have been informed.

"A report will be submitted to the procurator-fiscal."

Mountain rescue team leader John Stevenson said: "It was a bad fall. We think he was the lead climber because his mate was on the rope. He saw him fall, as did two other climbers in the area, and he abseiled down and raised the alarm.

"This latest tragedy is very unfortunate, to say the least; he was well equipped."

David Gibson, chief officer of the Mountaineering Council for Scotland, said: "The number of fatalities this year, whilst regrettable, are not outside the general trend of the last few years."

Figures show that deaths on Scottish mountains have declined since the 1990s.

The mountain rescue committee of Scotland's annual statistics report for 2011 stated that there were 52 fatalities, 31 related to non-mountaineering incidents and 21 directly attributable to mountaineering.

In 2010, there were 45 fatalities, of which 16 were mountaineering and 29 non-mountaineering-related.

Mr Gibson said the statistics should be put into context with the number of people now visiting Scotland's mountains.

According to research by Scottish Natural Heritage, during 2011 there were an estimated 7.2 million individual visits to the hills for mountaineering and hillwalking by Scottish residents alone.

And VisitScotland said that of the 14.7 million visitors to the country in 2010, long walks, hikes and rambles were among the most popular activities for 35 per cent.

The series of tragedies on the hills began on 13 January when John Wooding, 29, of east London, died in Coire an t-Sneachda in the Cairngorms in a fall on the Aladdin's Mirror route.

Dr Rachel Majumdar, 29, PhD student Tom Chesters, 28, Christopher Bell, 24, also a PhD student, and junior doctor Una Finnegan, 25, died after they were caught up in an avalanche in Glencoe on 19 January.

On 26 January, another climber, Ben St Joseph, 22, from Essex, died after falling about 100m from Tower Ridge on Ben Nevis.

Graham Connell, 31, from Castleford, West Yorkshire, died in the Jacob's Ladder area of the Cairngorms following a large-scale search for him and five other people who were reported overdue on 10 February.

Another avalanche in the Cairngorms on Valentine's Day killed RAF Squadron leader Rimon Than, 33 and Flight Lieutenant Fran Capps, 32. William Currie, 18, from Penzance, Cornwall, who was on a training exercise with Glenmore Lodge outdoor centre, also died.