A mountain rescue team undertook one of their more unusual call-outs – to recover a school weather balloon.
Alness Academy’s Geoscience Club built their own balloon, packed with data loggers and a GPS tracker.
They released it from Aviemore Primary – and around two hours later received a signal the balloon had landed at a site at Easter Echt, near Westhill, in Aberdeenshire.
Donald MacRae, guidance teacher in Alness Academy and team leader of Dundonnell Mountain Rescue Team contacted his counterpart in Aberdeen MRT, Scott Stevens to ask for help.
Aberdeen MRT carried out a search of a forest and found the balloon hanging from a tree, 30ft above the ground.
One of the team volunteers, who works as a tree surgeon, was called up and the balloon was recovered and was returned to Alness Academy.
Data downloaded showed that the balloon reached a height of 71,000ft before descending back to Earth and the tree in Aberdeenshire.
