I did a mountain flying course with Mike Smith (Q's Dad, not the late headset hair) back in the 80's in Snowdonia. At one point we were going up 400 fpm with the needles split in a Hughes 269. I've also seen an S76 around the area of this crash hit nearly full power at 5500 AMSL just to stay level.
I love mountains, but in a helicopter they are best admired from a distance
SND