Text message pinpointed man stuck on mountain
RESCUERS found a man stuck on a Snowdonia ridge via a text message.
Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team (LMRT) used the Sarloc Rescue smart phone app to pinpoint where the young man had become crag fast on Crib Goch at about 2pm on Saturday.
It sends a text to stranded people and uses their smartphone’s GPS capabilities to show rescuers exactly where they are.
After a number of attempts to pluck him to safety the Martime and Coastguard Agency helicopter, which had been called in to help, airlifted the man off the ridge. A LMRT spokesman said: “A team coordinator sent a Sarloc Rescue to the man’s phone, which sent the team a grid reference.
“A Maritime and Coastguard Agency helicopter was called in to help with the recovery of the man from Crib Goch. The helicopter arrived and attempted to recover the man and three team members were sent down to our landing zone to wait for pick up just in case the helicopter was unable to get to the man.
The casualty was just on the cloud level and the helicopter made sev- eral attempts to get in to him but was unable to.”
Three team members were picked up by the helicopter to try and reach the stranded man. But a window of opportunity appeared soon after to rescue him.
“Just after picking up the team members a break in the cloud appeared above the man, giving the helicopter a chance to do a quick pick off of the casualty,” the spokesman said.
“The casualty was checked over in the back of the helicopter and found to be cold but otherwise okay, so the three mountain rescue members and casualty were all returned to the landing zone for dropping off.”
In total nine LMRT team members, a Land Rover and the helicopter were involved in the rescue which took one hour 40 minutes.
The Sarloc system was developed by Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation member Russ Hore. Sarloc has now been used on numerous occasions to help stranded people.