In gale force winds and sub-zero temperatures, a rescue team has been deployed. A young hiker has plunged 250m off a cliff. It is a race against time to save his life. These are the unsung heroes of the Scottish Highlands - dedicated volunteers who risk their lives every day in Britain's highest peaks. The Cairngorm mountain range have a climate similar to the Arctic tundra. The weather here is extremely changeable - within minutes a fine day can become a blizzard.
WILLIE ANDERSON, RESCUE TEAM: That is the problem with all the mountains really, and Scotland in particular, because it is a very variable climate. Especially up the mountains.
I'm with the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue team as they head up to the summit.
WILLIE ANDERSON: Well it is not a blue sky day, so you probably are feeling Cairngorm in its glory.
From here, we walk.
WILLIE ANDERSON: This is hard work. Are you OK? Do you want five?
On the plateau below the summit, men check for signs of potential avalanches.
ALISDAIR, RESCUE TEAM: That is a sheer drop of about 300m, about 1,000ft and when the light is very poor it is very difficult to see that edge. And also with the amount of drifting snow, if you get any drifting snow, it builds up into what is a cornice, or a great big huge snow overhang and it overhangs the slope below.
Alisdair, known as 'Cube' was involved in the rescue of a climber here last week.
ALISDAIR: He probably went through a little cornice like this and the slope avalanched.
I'm told this is a relatively benign day. We walked up a hill that seemed to me a sheer wall of snow, to get to the top of this cliff and this is on the edge of the Cairngorm plateau and the wind just whistles - or howls - across the top here. But if this is a mild day I would hate to think what it is like when there is really bad weather up here. What makes the Cairngorms so unique is its easy accessibility as a winter adventure playground. Attracting skiers, climbers and walkers, the area is an important part of Scotland's tourist industry - worth around $750 million a year. But more tourists taking risks means more accidents. Last year, 24 people were killed in Scotland's mountains. Often, the only thing between life and death up here are the mountain rescue volunteers.
WILLIE ANDERSON: Rescue base, Willie here.
A call has come in at the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue HQ. A climber has been injured and needs to be evacuated off the mountain.
WILLIE ANDERSON: What is your plan for this guy?
Strong winds and heavy snow will make rescue difficult. Team leader, Willie Anderson, fears the climate might have caused an avalanche.
WILLIE ANDERSON: The wind is coming in from this direction, south-east.
All the team's members are unpaid and are on call 24/7. The group is made up of doctors, mountain guides, carpenters and teachers.
ALISDAIR: We are getting an ambulance to come and pick us up.
We get a call. Members of ski patrol - also members of mountain rescue - have reached the injured man first. Apart from a broken ankle he is safe.
SKIER: Cold and a little bit of hurt pride - but you know, nothing more than that.
The weather worsens and yet skiers and especially climbers keep pouring in.
WILLIE ANDERSON: If you take today, for example, Cairngorm, the weather was atrocious, and yet the report from our guys on the hill was that people were still walking into the corries in their droves.
A corrie is a mountain slope shaped like a bowl. High in the Cairngorms, many of the corries are popular winter climbing spots.
REPORTER: To the inexperienced eye, I have to say, crawling up that crevice there in snow doesn't look like a lot of fun.
ALISDAIR: Well it doesn't look like a lot of fun to you, but for a lot of people, that is fun.
I've walked up here is Cube, who is trying to explain to me the attraction of climbing these dangerous walls of rock.
REPORTER: Are they experienced?
ALISDAIR: The word 'Experienced' is a word that is bandies around a lot but that word is used quite a lot when people aren't actually what I would call experienced. They've maybe had a few days out in the Scottish winter and that is it.
But the Scottish winter can surprise even the most experienced climbers.
MIKHAEL: We were walking and then the next thing I remember I was laying on my side, basically blown by the wind. That's when we thought, "It's a bit serious now".
In January climbing instructors Philip and Mikhael came here to climb the corries. They started climbing through the corries under clear skies. Very quickly it all started to change.
PHILIP: I thought, "This is starting to turn in a very unpleasant fashion", I mean to the point where we were potted down with axes dug under the ice just to stop being blown across it.
The wind had grown to 140 kilometres per hour. Unable to stand the pair were caught near the top of a cliff.
PHILIP: After not very many metres we would have been blown over the edge.
MIKHAEL: 200m drop, yes, I'm pretty sure that is the depth.
Using a mobile, they contacted the rescue team who, under Willie's leadership, immediately swung into action.
MIKHAEL: After 20 minutes, the guy he gave me a call back, saying "There will be a team going up to collect you", basically, yes.
Battling the ferocious winds, the team struggled to find them.
WILLIE ANDERSON: It is above here, I think. Worth chucking crampons on then? While we've got light just as well. It is not nearly as wild as it was earlier.
Philip and Mikhael were sheltering as best they could in an ice trench - getting dangerously cold as snow piled on top of them.
WILLIE ANDERSON: Hello! Steve - wait for the light! Hello!
Five hours after their call, they finally saw some lights.
PHILIP: And then they disappeared for a bit and the lights came back into view.
MIKHAEL: Then the next thing I remember is like chocolate in my mouth and I felt like at home straightaway.
PHILIP: Yes!
WILLIE ANDERSON: They admitted that certainly Philip would have been dead by the morning. He had no resources left by the time we got to him.
REPORTER: What would have killed him?
WILLIE ANDERSON: Hypothermia would have killed him.
Across the Highlands, Mountain Rescue teams average about 500 callouts every year, but the service doesn't come cheap. Insurance, equipment and vital clothing are all expensive. It costs $150,000 a year to run the Cairngorm team alone. They get just $35,000 from the government. They have to raise the rest themselves.
WILLIE ANDERSON: We have noticed recently that it is becoming more and more difficult, and the squeeze just seems to be on there, and we are beginning to wonder what the future will hold.
Cube and Simon are back on the mountain. They have had a call from the police about two lost walkers.
ALISDAIR: Hello? Hello!
Just past the tree line, Cube finds them.
ALISDAIR: Are you alright? Aye. What is your name?
MARK: Mark.
ALISDAIR: And you are?
NATALIE: Natalie.
ALISDAIR: Come on, Natalie.
REPORTER: How are you feeling at the moment?
NATALIE: Fine, just a wee bit dizzy and sick.
REPORTER: And how about you?
MARK: Freezing cold. We were trying to find some snow and it is our last day, and we tried to find a track and we ran out of track and ran out of signal so we thought it would be better to try and walk as high as we could to get a signal and eventually we got a signal.
ALISDAIR: Within a few hours they would be hypothermic. I mean there is always that potential to kill yourself out here.
Every day more people head into these mountains - possibly unaware of the risks or even the people who will drop everything to save them, if trouble strikes.
ANJALI RAO: Evan Williams there - perhaps in need of a wee dram!
Reporter/Camera
EVAN WILLIAMS
Supervising Producer
VICTORIA STROBL
Additional Camera
ASHLEY HAMER
Editor
NICK O'BRIEN
Original music composed by
VICKI HANSEN