I started a post after reading the AAIB report and then thought better of it. I knew the pilot well enough to chat to occasionally and given his knowledge and general approach I fully expected that the cause of the crash would not be deliberately flying into the rotor of Ben More.
However it seems that is pretty much what happened, probably to get some good video of the summit. The report states there were no visual clues to the wind at height such as spindrift which is fair enough - although in my experience spindrift is pretty rare - snow here tends to be pretty wet and claggy so you do not see it often.
It is interesting that no data was recovered from the GPS. From my experience it is one of the best ways of sorting out what the local wind in doing and in all probability was showing grounds speeds in the 30 odd knot range - which should have been a very clear indicator of what to expect.
I can only assume that a decision was made to go and 'have a look' at Ben More on the hoff, the camera positioning meant that flying straight toward it was necessary and the position they made that decision in meant heading onto the rotor. I did not fly that day - I decided it would take 'too long' and be 'too bumpy' to go to the west coast but atually it was not a bad day, certainly nothing exceptional.
This report is a nasty reminder of how unforgiving our hobby can be when decisions are made.