MOUNTAIN rescuers have warned it could be months before the bodies of three missing hillwalkers are found.

John Stevenson, of Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team, said it was “like looking for a needle in a haystack” if, as feared, the men are buried by separate avalanches.

He warned that some hillwalkers and climbers had no idea of what it was like navigating in current conditions and were risking their lives as a result.

He added: “In whiteout you cannot even see your feet. It is like getting inside a plastic bag and trying to climb out.”

There have been five deaths on Scotland’s hills in three weeks. Three of the men – two in the Lochaber area - are still missing.

At least two have fallen through cornices andnd rescue teams have carried out 14 operations since the weekend.

A 55-year-old man from the Roybridge area was seen on Sunday to plunge through a cornice on Beinn a’ Chaorainn, which at 3440ft high is situated on the northern side of Glen Spean. His local woman companion in her 20s watched in horror – and then in blizzard conditions made her way off the hill to raise the alarm.

Mr Stevenson said it was too dangerous to resume the search for the man today.

Police Scotland also said that there are no plans to look again for another of the recent missing victims, Neil Gibson, 63, from Nairn, until there is “significant snow melt.”