A NORTH-East woman remains in a critical condition following a tragic avalanche which claimed the lives of four of her friends.

The 24-year-old woman from the Durham area, who has not been named, suffered severe head injuries in the incident in Glencoe, in the Scottish Highlands, on Saturday (January 19).

A six-strong team was descending Bidean Nam Bian when the snow engulfed them.

Rachel Majumdar, a trainee doctor at Harrogate, her partner Tom Chesters, Newcastle University graduate Una Finnegan and Christopher Bell died.

Another man, who has not been named, survived by leaping from the collapsing sheet of snow and hammering an ice axe into further ground.

The Durham woman remains in Glasgow’s Southern General Hospital.