A “celebration of life” service is to be held in memory of one of the climbers who died in an avalanche on Ben Nevis last month.
Tim Newton, 27, and Rachel Slater, 24, were missing on the UK’s highest mountain for more than five weeks until their bodies were discovered in deep snow at the base of Observatory Gully last week.
The couple, who were both experienced climbers, were reported missing on February 15 when they failed to return from a climbing trip on the 4,412ft peak.
Ms Slater’s car was found in the North Face Car Park and their tent was found near the CIC hut.
But extensive air and land searches failed to find any trace of them until they were spotted in deep snow by a climber on Wednesday evening and recovered by Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team (MRT).
Mr Newton’s family have now announced that they are holding a service to celebrate his life near Leicester on Saturday April 16.
And they are inviting his friends and anyone who knew him to attend the event.
They also said “a huge thank you” to all the people who commented on Lochaber MRT’s page on a social networking site to share information during the search and to “extend kind wishes and prayer” after their deaths.
They said: “The kind words since Tim and Rachel were found have been much appreciated.
“The support of so many people has meant so much.
“We would of course, like to thank again the MRT for their relentless hard work and support.”
Mr Newton, originally from Leicester, lived in Bradford and studied physics at the universities of Manchester and Leeds, according to his social media profile.
He had been climbing for around 10 years and logged more than 1,400 climbs on a climbing and mountaineering website.
Ms Slater, who also lived in Bradford, logged more than 2,300 climbs and described some of them in her online blog, including her first winter climb on Ben Nevis in March of last year.
Originally from Sheffield, she moved to Calgary in Canada with her family in 2005 and joined a youth climbing team in 2007, progressing to the competitive youth team the following year.
She also attended Manchester University and graduated with a BSc (Hons) in environmental science.
Anyone wishing to attend the service is asked to e-mail Mr Newton’s brother and sister-in-law, Ed and Safi Newton, at edwardjohnnewton@gmail.com giving their name and explaining how they knew him.
