Six people rescued in five days in Cairngorms

Six people have had to be rescued in the space of a week after getting into difficulty in the Cairngorms.

On Sunday, a party of three became cragfast - unable to ascend or descend a mountainside - in Coire an t-Sneachda.

They were rescued by fellow climbers and an RAF mountain rescue team training in the area.

Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team helped a group of three who were cragfast at Coire an Lochan on Wednesday evening.

The team said the party was not equipped with ropes and technical equipment to get themselves to safety.

Twenty-two of Cairngorm's volunteers set up a rigging system so they could haul each casualty up to safety one at a time.

The three people were very cold but were able to walk off the hill after being warmed up.

Cairngorm MRT, which had been called out to Sunday's rescue along with a coastguard helicopter before being stood down, said snow conditions had been a factor in both incidents.

The team said: "The current lean snow conditions are leading to difficult conditions even on normal lower grade routes."

Last week, police said a lack of snow cover on Scotland's hills and mountains had been a likely cause of serious accidents in recent weeks.

It said the hills were not holding the amounts of snow they typically would do at this time of year.

Police said this may be giving hillwalkers a false sense of security and they were not adequately equipped for conditions higher up.

Mountaineering Scotland also raised concerns about the risk.

Police Scotland urged visitors to the hills to make sure they were kitted out for winter weather and conditions, including crampons and an ice axe.