One British climber died and a second was rescued, suffering serious frostbite, after spending days stranded on a French mountainside in bad weather, rescue officials said yesterday.
The climbers, both from Edinburgh and said to be experienced, had been stranded on a peak in the Mont Blanc range since Tuesday.
Earlier rescue attempts were hampered by bad weather.
Operating in dangerously high winds yesterday, a helicopter managed to reach the climbers, Mr Andrew Jameson (30), and Mr Jamie Fischer (28), at an altitude of 4,000 metres on the Droites mountain.
The helicopter crew put down a paramedic before winching up the men and taking them to hospital in the French Alpine resort.
Rescue workers were able to save Mr Jameson, who was frost-bitten and close to death when the helicopter reached the pair.
But they were unable to revive Mr Fischer, who mountain police said had probably died on Friday of cold and exhaustion.
Doctors at Chamonix hospital were trying yesterday to save Mr Jameson's frost-bitten limbs from amputation.
Rescue workers said conditions in the air were "extreme" because of the high winds.
The rescue mission got under way after a first helicopter carried out a reconnaissance earlier yesterday.
High winds had prevented earlier rescue attempts and a first attempt to winch the men off the mountain had to be abandoned on Friday.
Clear skies and sunshine bathed the area on Sunday, but temperatures were around 15C.
A ground rescue operation had been ruled out because of an avalanche risk.
The climbers had set out on January 24th to climb the Droites, a peak near Chamonix and a difficult ascent, especially in the winter.
They encountered gales of between 100 and 150 k.p.h. while 1.5 metres of snow fell and temperatures dropped to 30C. The father of one of the men contacted rescuers on Thursday and they were later spotted by a helicopter patrol.