THE eighth climber to die in Scotland this year has been killed on Ben Nevis.
Mr Timothy Snaith, 34, of Wellington Street, York fell 700 feet down the mountainside yesterday afternoon.
His companion, Mr John Keaveny, 24, of Mullingar, West Meath, Ireland, fell 200 feet at the same time.
He was flown to Belford Hospital in Fort William after a Sea King helicopter from RAF Lossiemouth was scrambled.
The two men, who plunged down the Observatory Gully from a position near to the summit of the peak, were in a party of four mountaineers tackling a tough ice-covered route at the time.
The rescue services were alerted by a message to the police station in Fort William over an emergency radio transmitter in a high-altitude mountain bothy, called the C.I.C. Hut.
Fort William-based volunteers of the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team were also called out to the rescue.
Mr Keaveney, of Hillside Drive, Mullingar, suffered a leg injury and was airlifted to the hospital by helicopter just before 5pm.
The Scottish mountains have been thronged by thousands of visiting climbers during the Easter holiday week.
Scotland is renowned for the world-class challenges which many of its ice and snow covered rocky mountain slopes offer to experienced climbers.
Britain's highest mountain contains some of Scotland's most demanding 'classic' winter climbing ascents on its gigantic cliffs.
It attracts mountaineers from Europe and North America as well as from the home countries.
Ben Nevis had a fresh covering of snow yesterday and temperatures were sub-zero at the point from which the men fell.
Mr Keaveney was detained in hospital but his leg injury is not life-threatening.
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