The 24-year-old man and 20-year-old woman from Manchester got lost in the Scottish range on Saturday.

Mountain rescuers were able to ring them to find out their exact location, to the west of Loch Avon.

Police said they were fortunate to get a signal and may not have survived the night with temperatures plunging to below minus 10C.

Anybody who gets lost in the Cairngorms in this weather is very lucky to get out Sergeant Maurice Macleod

The couple became lost at about 2030 GMT and texted a friend who rang Aviemore police station for help.

A helicopter was scrambled from RAF Kinloss and they were airlifted from the mountains at about 0045 GMT on Sunday.

The couple, who did not want to be identified, refused medical attention despite the woman suffering an ankle injury.

Sergeant Maurice Macleod, of Aviemore Police, said: "They showed a good deal of presence of mind to use their mobile phone to raise the alarm, but they were lucky to get any kind of signal up on the Cairngorms.

"Their luck was also in when the mountain rescue team were able to phone them to find out where they were.

"The forecast was for minus 10C last night and with the wind chill it could even have been colder than that.

"Anybody who gets lost in the Cairngorms in this weather is very lucky to get out."