Three airlifted to hospital after Scottish avalanche The three men were climbing a 3000-feet section known as the Fiacaill Buttress. They were swept along by the snow slide, but managed not to become buried beneath it. Al Gilmour, training officer of Cairngorm Mountain Rescue, said: "We do not know how far they were carried but they managed to stay on top of it. Anybody who has an avalanche and walks away is lucky. They suffered leg injuries but in the circumstances it could have been a lot worse. They were wearing helmets and, from accounts of the rescue personnel on the hill, that probably saved them and they got away with leg injuries, although one of them may have a particularly serious lower leg injury. I saw one of the helmets of one of the guys who was rescued and it's got quite deep scratches along the side. Earlier two other climbers were caught in an avalanche in the same part of the Fiacaill Buttress and walked away unscathed. They were also lucky. The incident comes two weeks after an avalanche claimed four lives in the Highlands. Hospital doctor Rachel Majumdar, 29; PhD student Tom Chesters, 28; Christopher Bell, 24, also a PhD student; and 25-year-old junior doctor Una Finnegan died after they were caught up in an avalanche in Glencoe, on Saturday, January 19. A 24-year-old woman remains in hospital - having been transferred from the Belford Hospital in Fort William to the Southern General in Glasgow - and a sixth climber, an unnamed man, survived.