Outdoor instructor Grant Cunliffe should have been celebrating his 50th birthday with his family on Saturday.

Instead the man with a passion for mountaineering is missing in the Cairngorms and his family have accepted he is probably dead.

He was last seen in January and has not been found, despite a search in the area of the Lairig Ghru pass in the Cairngorms by 180 volunteers, an RAF helicopter and search and rescue dogs.

Now his two daughters are to climb the Three Peaks to raise cash for the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team Grant, an experienced mountain leader and former hairdresser, was in the mountains notching up the hours towards qualifying as a winter mountain guide.

In his last text to his wife, Linda, he told her there was a “lot of snow but not to worry.”

Shortly before he went missing, he was seen by another climber in a bothy where he had left his sleeping bag before venturing out. The alarm was raised on January 21 by the police, who inspected his car and found a note saying he would be back on January 20.

“It’s very difficult for us all, but I’m resolved now that he has died but hopeful there is a chance that they will find him once the thaw comes,” said Mrs Cunliffe, of West End, Long Preston.

Meanwhile, 21-year-old Jessica and her sister Olivia, 16, a pupil at Skipton Girls’ High School, are preparing to climb Whernside, Penyghent and Ingleborough on Sunday, April 29. They will be joined by 10 other family members and friends.

“It’s particularly appropriate because Grant was planning to climb the Three Peaks again. He had climbed them in his 20s, 30s and his 40s,” said Mrs Cunliffe. Walking and climbing had been a passion all his life and he had given up his profession as a hairdresser to pursue a career as a freelance outdoor instructor and mountain leader, she explained.

He was a Duke of Edinburgh Award trainer and assessor and a qualified summer mountain leader, and had organised a number of expeditions this summer. He had climbed Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya.

Donations for the Three Peaks climb can be made to the Grant Cunliffe Memorial Appeal, c/o HSBC Bank, Branch Sort Code 40-40-10, Account Number 91470965.