I cannot believe that the individuals concerned could be so stupid and have total disregard for their own safety or that of the inevitable MRT team members.

Bearing in mind the well advertised weather forecast, the cause of this rescue seems unbelievable. Hopefully they will receive a stiff warning from the MRT.

Could not agree more with Philip.
If these are indeed experienced walkers/mountaineers then they should indeed be ashamed of themselves for putting others at risk.

Here we go again. Is it clear that the 5 walkers were "rescued"? Do we know that they wanted to be "rescued"? They were apparently found safe and well.

I'm terribly sorry that every time I go for a walk in the hills when the forecast is poor, I am "putting others at risk". I hope that any MRT member would decide for himself or herself whether he or she was competent to cope with the weather before searching for me, and not take any risk they felt was unjustified.

The reason I find Philip's and Joe's reactions worrying is that we could end up with weather forecasters, or even MRTs (except that they tend to have more sense), deciding that the hills are out of bounds. I cannot believe that that is desirable for hillwalkers and mountaineers.

Could not agree more with Jon.

If the MRT had found these five wearing T-shirts & flip flops and freezing to death then I agree it would have been irresponsible to venture out, but they weren't. They were well equipped and had made their way to relative safety. Just the sort of thing experienced walkers would do. They may have told someone their plans which due to circumstances they had to change, again exactly what they should do but this was likely to be the trigger to "assume" they were missing and go "rescue" them. This part was out of their control.

What we really need is accessible affordable technology to assist circumstances like this.

Do not fuel the slip towards a nanny state get out there and enjoy yourselves.

Some people went for walk, well prepared with both equipment and experience. They didn't get into any trouble, spent a night in their tents, and were walking home when the MRT arrived to "rescue" them.

"There was no problem, the wind blew us back quite a bit so our walking pace was quite slow. We camped in shelter. We got the stoves on, we were prepared for it, you prepare for the worst. When the helicopter went over we thought it was a general pass. I was stood there waving at them."

In what way exactly were they irresponsible? Sounds like I good couple of days on the hill to me!

Hamish MacInnes said "I don't consider it our place to stand in judgement of our fellows". Over the years it has generally been understood that rescue teams did not make comments of those who have been rescued - no matter how silly they may have been.
However, comments quoted in the Press and Journal, allegedly by one of the team leaders involved in this rescue, indicate that 'judgement' may now be fashionable.

It was irresponsible of these guys to set off on their walk given the very well publicised weather forecast.
To call them "experienced" is not correct - they may have been well equipped and walked in bad weather before, but nobody can stand up or even walk in winds exceeding 80mph.
If they have now learnt from this, they are perhaps now more experienced that they were before.
It is not fair on family and friends who worry when your expected arrival time passes and you are unable to contact them in any way to advise of a change of plans. Their families had no choice but to contact the Police.
No doubt the rescue teams must think them rather stupid as well.
The hills will be there another day so don't be selfish and refuse to cancel a few days planned walking.

One of their friends/family "raised concerns" with MRT I believe - hence the search and rescue. Don't blame MRT for going out and looking if someone has asked them to!

Jamie, who has blamed the Mountain Rescue for looking for them?

Having been a member of several MRT's and also happen to be one of the lads father, I feel I have to comment on some of the negative remarks in your comments. I am well proud of my son and his mates, if there were more like them there would not be so many couch potatoes with nothing to do but criticise. They were not due down and missing. They do not wait for a fine night to litter up the banks of our lochs with their beer cans etc. They were prepared for anything. the call out was the result of a misunderstanding and nothing more. I only wish that some of my call outs were resolved as well.

Judge not the man until you have walked in his moccasins. Too many people make a hobby out of criticising others in worlds they know nothing about.