Three people have died while mountaineering in Scotland and two more are missing in three separate incidents caused by a bout of freezing weather and strong winds, police said today.
Police said two hillwalkers in their 70s had died and a third who was also airlifted to hospital was still being treated.
A climber who was not named also died in an avalanche on a mountain south of Loch Ness in the Highlands.
Rescuers described struggling against "very challenging conditions," with winds blowing up to 140 kilometres (87 miles) an hour, in the search for a couple in their 20s who went missing at the weekend on Ben Nevis, Britain's highest mountain.
"Sadly conditions on Ben Nevis are preventing us from going out to look" for the pair, the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team said in a Facebook message late on Wednesday.
