Four charity walkers have been airlifted off a freezing Scottish mountain.
One of the quartet was suffering from hypothermia where the wind chill had lowed temperatures to -10C.
The alarm was raised by four men – all in their 20s – who had already conquered Ben Macdui, at 4,295ft Britain’s second highest mountain.
But on 4,236ft high Cairn Toul they found themselves unable to carry on, and exhausted, phoned for help.
Braemar and Aberdeen mountain rescue teams were scrambled.
A coastguard search and rescue helicopter from Inverness was unable to reach the summit where the four were huddled because of low cloud cover.
Instead the helicopter took rescue team members about 3,500 feet up the peak.
“The four people were at the summit and were all tired. The one we were most worried about was suffering from hypothermia,” said a spokesman for Braemar MRT.
“We warned him up with hot drinks and warm clothing and managed to walk the four down to a level where the helicopter could take them off.
“It was unseasonally cold and it is a good job the wind was not blowing harder. They were on a 24-hour challenge and said they had done something similar in the Lakes but had not realised how cold the Cairngorms were.”
The team got back to base around 8.30am.
