An Inverness teacher was one of three people to die during a spate of avalanches in the Highlands.
William Wilkinson, 34, and his friend Nicholas Rosedale, 37, were swept to their deaths on Britain’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis, on Wednesday.
Another man Chris Astill, 53, from Tideswell in Derbyshire, died after being caught in a separate avalanche at Torridon, Wester Ross.
Mr Wilkinson, who lived with his partner Becky in Grigor Drive, Inverness, was a geography teacher at Culloden Academy.
Yesterday head teacher, Stephen Dowds paid tribute to Mr Wilkinson, who had been at the school for a year.
He said: “Will was an excellent young teacher with a tremendous amount of promise. He was one of the most helpful young people you could imagine to work with. He was very well liked by teachers and staff.
“He was an extremely helpful guy.”
A neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: “He was a lovely guy, who would do anything for you.
“There are a number of elderly people on the street and he and Becky regularly come out and helped us with our bins and the such.
“Becky will be devastated. They were such a great couple, always going out at the weekends to do their sporty stuff. He was a keen mountaineer who lived for his life on the hills. This is such a tragedy.”
Mr Wilkinson and fellow teacher, Mr Rosedale, of Marlborough, Wiltshire, were ascending No 3 Gully with a third man when they were hit by tons of snow and hurled 600ft down the mountain.
The third member of the climbing party survived and was able to raise the alarm.
A full-scale rescue was mounted and one body was found buried in the snow two hours later. The second man was discovered a few hundred yards away soon after.
Police said they were all well-equipped, highly experienced and European-accredited climbers who were “in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
Mr Astill was swept away by snow on the 3,461ft Liathach ridge, in Torridon.
He was found conscious and cold with a suspected broken arm by Torridon Mountain Rescue Team. His companion raised the alarm shortly before noon on Wednesday. He was flown to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness but later died.