Four men who tried to climb Ben Nevis in blizzard conditions without proper equipment – three of them wearing trainers – were lucky to have survived, those who rescued them from near the summit have said.

When the group set out to climb Britain’s highest peak on Monday as Storm Ciara raged, they had no ice axes or crampons, and did not appear to have a map, said Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team (LMRT), a registered charity.

The rescuers, all volunteers with the charity, said the group would have had little or no chance of survival, had they not been found that evening after calling 999.

Miller Harris, a member of the rescue team, said the men were verging on hypothermia when they were airlifted to safety, and he doubted they would have survived many more hours in wintry conditions as “serious as they are going to get”.

Harris said the group had taken a taxi from Fort William to the start of the “tourist path” up the mountain. “They were 15 minutes from being in the town to being in a serious location and situation.

“Any walk up into the Scottish mountains at this time of year is a serious undertaking and we would expect anyone that is a member of a climbing club to know that. But, for the general public who come up on holiday, it’s difficult to get information to them. People see it’s called a tourist path so they think it is an easy walk up.”

Harris said there were winds of up to 100mph and windchill was causing temperatures of -20C at the summit. The group was found on steep ice near the summit, and he said going a few metres further would have posed serious risk. “They were lucky in the sense that where they were had phone signal, if it hadn’t, we wouldn’t have known they were there,” he said.

“They certainly wouldn’t have survived the night.”

The rescue team posted images of the airlift on its Facebook page. Photograph: Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team

The group used the what3words app to pinpoint their location. The mountain rescue team was called out around noon on Monday, and 22 members were involved in the search operation, which concluded around 7.30pm.

“Extremely lucky people. No winter kit – no ice axes, no crampons and, as far as we are aware, no maps. Three of the guys were in trainers,” the team said on Facebook after it had been confirmed the men had been airlifted to safety.

“They were about 150m down into Coire Eoghainn on steep ice and if they had slipped or gone down any further consequences could have far more serious. Fantastic effort by the team members to find them and get them down safely.”

The group was taken to Belford hospital in Fort William and all the men have since been released.