Climber dies after Ben Nevis fall

The latest climbing tragedy on Ben Nevis brings the death toll on Scotland’s mountains to 11 this year.

Police received a report on Monday afternoon that a man had fallen about 164ft in the Raeburn’s Buttress area on the north face of Britain’s highest mountain.

He had been climbing with another man at the time.

Two helicopters and members of the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team were sent to the scene.

Northern Constabulary said the man died during the rescue operation.

Inquiries into the circumstances of the incident are being carried out.

A spokesman added: “The man will not be identified until all next of kin have been informed and a report will be submitted to the procurator fiscal.”

John Wooding died in Coire an t-Sneachda in the Cairngorms on 13 January in a fall on the Aladdin’s Mirror route.

Mr Wooding, 29, known as Jack, of Limehouse, east London, died on Monday from injuries he suffered in the incident.

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

Another avalanche in the Cairngorms a fortnight ago killed RAF Squadron leader Rimon Than, 33, Flight Lieutenant Fran Capps, 32, and 18-year-old William Currie, 18, from Penzance, Cornwall.

In the same week as the second fatal avalanche a hillwalker died during an expedition with a mountaineering club in the Cairngorms. Graham Connell, 31, from Castleford, West Yorkshire, was found dead in the Jacob’s Ladder area following a large-scale search for him and five other people who were reported overdue.

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