Mountain rescuers hiked for 12 hours in pitch darkness during Storm Brendan to help a walker – who felt a bit “sore”.
The 16-strong team endured a 16-mile round-trip through snow, gales and rain after the man called 999 to say he was stranded.
But they found him tucked up in a sleeping bag in a bothy shelter with pals, so turned round for the gruelling return journey.
He was with two pals safely tucked up in the basic shelter - but apparently didn’t cancel his 999 call.
Fuming Willie Anderson, of Cairngorm Mountain Rescue, in Scotland, said: “They were apologetic and could see we were upset. He said he had sore tendons in his legs. His legs were sore because he had walked a long way.
“What puzzles me is why he didn’t call to say everything was OK... it was a huge waste of time.
“We had to assume there was a risk to life and took a stretcher with us.”
The three teams of rescuers were left to just turn around for their six hour return journey, in the dead of night in blizzard-like conditions.
The teams had hoped to send a helicopter to the walker but the weather was so bad they were forced to go on foot.
Tayside Mountain Rescue Team were also involved in the call out, which has been described as a "total abuse" of services.
Willie has urged all walkers to only request emergency assistance if they are genuinely in need of help and are in danger.
He said: "We are always happy to respond and situations like this are easy to avoid.
"People need to realise what dialling 999 involves."
