Rescue kings of the mountains
THE UK’s busiest mountain rescue team has had a record-breaking year, becoming the first in the country to deal with more than 200 incidents in a 12-month period.
Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team dealt with 202 callouts in 2016 compared to 193 in 2015.
They responded 43 times to incidents on Snowdon in August alone – compared to 34 call-outs during the same month last year.
Over the last 10 years, the number of incidents reported in the area covered by the team has rocketed by 400%. and in August they attended a incident which made national headlines, when an RAF helicopter made an emergency landing on Yr Aran before catching fire.
Llanberis has asked for extra cash after describing the amount of call-outs this year as “unsustainable”.
Most of the incidents the rescue teams deal with are assisting people with lower leg injuries, stragglers who are too tired to continue and walkers who are woefully illequipped to be walking in the mountains.
In November Ogwen Val- ley Mountain Rescue Team were called out to help 13 illequipped students after one of them suffered a panic attack on an Ogwen Valley peak.
Chris Lloyd spokeman for Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Team said: “We have had 130 incidents this year, five of them were requests from North Wales Police.
“These are generally to search for a missing person in an urban area.”
Mr Lloyd also spoke of the rescue of an inexperienced young couple, who had got lost in Snowdonia during the summer.
“The young man wanted to find the famous Cantilever stone on Glyder Fach so went ahead into the cloud,” said Chris. “She waited until she thought she should call 999.
“They had taken lots of photos of being lost so we could retrace their route, a very interesting idea but not recommended one.”
He continued: “Another more memorable incident took place in June when a party of three were starting their descent down the Gribin Ridge in appalling weather.
“A man stepped on a flat rock which rotated, knocking him off balance too the ground. Somehow his head got trapped under the rock. But luckily his partner and their friend managed to extract the man.”
Mr Lloyd said: “The mountain rescue helipcopter flew team members up in very stormy conditions and later made a superb rescue.”
North East Wales Search and Rescue Team have also had one of their busiest years with 53 callouts so far.
A NEWSAR spokeswoman said: “One thing the team has noticed is there is a distinct change in the types of call outs that we have been getting over the last 12 to 18 months.
“We are now receiving a higher proportion of calls for spot pickups where a person has injured themselves on the hill and the ambulance service is either not able to reachch the casualty orr is unable to bring themm down off the e hill by themselves.
“Previously, the majority of f our callss were to search for vulnerable people eople missing fromm home.”