A former regional daily journalist who was rescued from a remote ski slope after she collapsed has spoken of her ordeal.

Angie Brown, who used to work for the Edinburgh Evening News, ruptured a ligament in her knee while skiing across a treacherous mountain gully high in the French Alps.

Experienced skier Angie, who now works for the BBC, had gone off-piste with a group of friends when disaster struck on the remote 9,000ft slope.

She had to be dragged down a slope and carried on the back of a guide before being airlifted to hospital.

Angie being rescued, left, and recovering in hospital

Angie told the Evening News: “I was taking these short, regular turns and I just crashed and lay there like I was dead – my knee was so sore. It was agony and I must’ve lay there face down in the snow for about ten minutes.”

She added: “[The guide] was really small but it turns out he’s really strong because he’s a mountain climber. It was really scary being on someone’s back skiing down a cliff. It was terrifying and I had to put my arms around his chest and I could feel him breathing. He was an absolute hero.

“It was so cold, I couldn’t feel my hands or my feet – it was excruciating. The helicopter tried to get in close and it just blew up all the snow. It was like getting sandblasted in the face, I couldn’t see anything.

“In the helicopter I just started crying. I was convulsing, I was in so much agony.”

Angie was airlifted to the nearest hospital in La Plagne where doctors confirmed a tear of her medial collateral ligament in her right knee.

She is now recovering after flying home on Sunday.