Coire an t-Sneachda

The Team’s annual winter skills training course in the Cairngorms was temporarily interrupted on Saturday afternoon when two mountaineers took a significant fall in the Goat Track area of Coire an t-Sneachda. One of our groups who were above on the Fiacaill ridge witnessed the fall and rang our group operating in the coire to direct them to the incident. A 999 call to the Police Scotland was also made to alert Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team (CMRT).

Within a short time we had a Doctor and Paramedic, along with other Team members, making an initial assessment of the two mountaineers and providing ongoing care. Due to the potentially serious injuries sustained by one of the mountaineers, a Maritime and Coastguard Agency helicopter from Inverness was requested. The helicopter, redirected from another incident, landed on soon after 14.00hrs.

With the assistance of CMRT members who had arrived on scene, our members walked one of the mountaineers, and packaged on a stretcher and carried the other mountaineer, to the helicopter. The two injured mountaineers were then flown to hospital in Inverness along with our Paramedic who provided continuity of care during the short flight.
All that then remained was for one of members to drive to Inverness airport to pick up our Paramedic!!

We wish the two mountaineers well for a swift and full recovery, and hope they are back out in the hills very soon. We’d also like to thank the other members of the mountaineering group who cared for the injured parties before we arrived on scene and the Coastguard helicopter and CMRT for their assistance. It was a pleasure working alongside our Scottish colleagues.

The incident involved 18 Team members for 1 hour 16 minutes.