Mountain safety investment

THE sports minister yesterday issued a safety warning to mountaineers just two days after a climber plunged to his death in the mountains.

Stewart Maxwell was in the Cairngorms – where a man died after a 900ft fall on Saturday – to announce more funding for winter sports.

David Rainey, 32, from Royston in Hertfordshire, lost his footing while climbing at the weekend on a rockface in Coire an t-Sneachda, where five climbers died in separate incidents over a two-month period last year.

Mr Maxwell said sportscotland will invest £155,300 through the Mountaineering Council of Scotland (MCS) to help safety for the 60,000 people on the slopes every weekend.

He said: "After the tragedy at the weekend our thoughts are with (Mr Rainey's] family and friends. Of course this is the very reason why we need to invest in the MCS and the weather forecast service to keep people fully up to date with where they should be going and where they shouldn't be going."

The money will support the Mountain Weather Information Service, which is the first publicly-funded comprehensive weather forecast service for outdoor users in Scotland and costs £35,000 a year to run.