A COUNTY climber died after falling 1,500ft when he was swept away by an avalanche on a Scottish mountain.

Robert Pritchard, 37, was in a party of three when the avalanche struck on the Buachaille Etive Mor at Glencoe.

Mr Pritchard, who previously lived in Bicton and Pontesbury, near Shrewsbury, died in the fall along with Christopher Walker, a 29-year-old mountain instructor from Cumbria.

Another group of mountaineers watched as Mr Pritchard, who lived in Surrey and worked in the financial sector in London at the time of his death, and Mr Walker, were hit by a wave of snow on Wednesday.

A spokesman for Northern Constabulary said two other climbers rescued the third member of the group, leading him further down the mountain.

He said it was there that they discovered avalanche debris and a man’s hand sticking out of the snow. The group contacted a mountain rescue team.

John Grieve, leader of Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team, said a call was received at about 4pm.

He said: “They were walking across a snowslip when it cracked and took them down.

“There was nothing they could have done, the ground was too steep.

“The avalanche that hit them was very small but they were killed in the fall,” he added

Mr Grieve said there had been a number of fatal accidents there over the years.

He said there was another avalanche at the weekend which hit two skiers who had a lucky escape.

A spokesman for the Crown Office in Scotland, which investigates sudden or suspicious deaths, said it had been made aware of the death of Mr Pritchard, whose parents still live in Shrewsbury.

The tragedy happened close to the spot where three climbers were killed in a similar accident last January.

Eamonn Murphy, 61, and his brother John Murphy, 63, died along with Brian Murray, 46, in Coire na Tulaich, a popular route up the Buachaille.