Inverness teacher William Wilkinson (34) and his friend Nicholas Rosedale (37) were swept to their deaths after being hit by tons of snow and hurled 600 feet down the mountain last Wednesday.

A third member of the climbing party survived and was able to raise the alarm.

It was the second avalanche tragedy in Lochaber in less than a year.

Mr Wilkinson, who lived with his partner Becky in Grigor Drive, Inverness, was a geography teacher at Culloden Academy.

Rector Steven 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 and was very well liked by teachers and staff."

Mr Wilkinson and fellow teacher, Mr Rosedale, of Marlborough, Wiltshire, were ascending No 3 Gully on the Ben's north face with a third man when the avalanche struck.

A full-scale rescue was mounted after police were alerted that two climbers were under the snow at around 10.45am.

Twenty members of Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team with six rescuers from RAF Leuchars and search dogs and handlers were taken to the scene.

Using long metal probes, rescuers found one body buried in the snow two hours later. The second man was located a few hundred yards away shortly after.

Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team leader John Stevenson said: "It looked as if the avalanche had started fairly small but picked up momentum, and washed the two men into a sort of bowl at the bottom of the gully where the snow set like concrete.

"We found them using probes, but the medical people said there was no sign of life."

Mr Stevenson said he thought it had been a windslab avalanche, caused by blown snow becoming unstable on top of earlier falls.

Fort William police chief inspector John Chisholm said: "The men were all well-equipped, highly experienced and European-accredited climbers. But it appears they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Recent weather conditions have been severe, with significant snow and ice accumulations. But overnight there was a significant thaw and a rise in temperatures, which made the mountains more susceptible to avalanche."

The Ben Nevis avalanche was one of four to hit climbers in the Highlands last Wednesday.

A climber was rescued from Torridon, Wester Ross, but died later in hospital.

Two climbers were swept away on Beinn Dothaidh in Glen Orchy, but managed to get out and raise the alarm. They were rescued and treated at the Belford Hospital, Fort William.

And a climber was caught up in another avalanche on Beinn Udlaidh, Bridge of Orchy. He was rescued and taken to Glasgow's Southern General Hospital with a suspected broken leg.

Last January, three men died in an avalanche on Buachaille Etive Mor in Glencoe, one of the worst in Scotland in recent years.

s.taylor@lochaber-news.co.uk

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