Lashing rain led to a night of rescue drama on the Skye mountains yesterday – including a woman wearing inadequate footwear and carrying a handbag being led to safety.
A group of Scouts from Germany had to be airlifted off the same ridge after rain battered their tents during Thursday night into yesterday morning.
Fourteen scouts – six aged 14, and the rest aged 16-18 – spent a bitterly cold and wet night on the Trotternish Ridge – where earlier a Canadian walker, who was carrying a handbag but had no walking boots, also had to be rescued.
On the other side of the island, a rescue operation was mounted after a young man plunged 30ft into a river.
The Scouts problems began when one had to be airlifted off the mountain on Thursday night after injuring an ankle.
He was accompanied by the party’s 22-year-old leader, leaving the remaining 14 youngsters huddled on the exposed ridge.
The injured teenager was flown by Stornoway Coastguard helicopter at around 6.50pm to the Western Isles Hospital in Stornoway.
Four members of Skye Mountain Rescue Team set off at 1.30am and reached the other Scouts 1,600ft up on the ridge.
Rescue team leader Gerry Akroyd said: “They had six tents between them but the rain and wind had flattened three of them. We found the 14 scouts huddled in sleeping bags in just three tents. We had received a call the night before but we were dealing with a Canadian woman who had got a bit frightened on another part of the ridge, about 800ft up. She had no boots and was carrying a handbag.
“To say she was not prepared would be an understatement.
“The Scouts had dry clothes between them and were trying to keep warm, but when they went outside of the tents they were shivering. The wind chill made temperatures very cold.
“The rain was horizontal and had just beaten down the three tents. We took them down 1,200 feet to where the helicopter could take them off in shuttle runs.
“The trouble is people see programmes about the ridge walk, or read books and see pictures about it, when the weather is fine. Skye’s weather is unpredictable and this group got caught out by it.”
The bedraggled Scouts were airlifted to Portree, before being taken by police to the care of the Red Cross at Kyle where the exhausted and soaked youngsters were given hot food, drinks and a warm shower.
Anne Eadie, Red Cross service manager, said: “The young people were exhausted and very wet when they arrived.
“All their tents, sleeping bags and equipment were soaked.
“A local backpackers’ hostel has given us the use of their drying facilities for all the wet stuff.”
The Trotternish Ridge is one of the best known and scenic walks in Scotland but has had its share of tragedies.
Only last week the body of 29-year-old Japanese tourist Kamai Yusuke was found there after he went missing.