50 years on from school trip Snowdon tragedy
THREE TEENAGE BOYS DIED IN 400FT FALL AFTER SLIPPING ON ICE
THREE teenage boys plunged 400ft to their deaths when tragedy struck a school mountaineering expedition.
Teachers watched horrified as the boys slid one by one over the edge of Clogwyn Coch during an expedition to Snowdonia on February 20, 1972.
They had stepped on to a sheet of ice while they were inching their way off Yr Wyddfa, the 3,560ft peak in Snowdonia.
The tragedy, one of two that winter which led to the deaths of nine teenagers, made front-page headlines in many national newspapers the following day and sparked calls for a ban on youth trips to mountain regions.
The Daily Mirror reported the “boys’ feet shot from under them and before anyone could help they vanished over the edge and hurtled into the valley below”.
The boys were among a party of 16 boys and four teachers from Dulwich College, London. Mountain rescue teams brought the bodies off the mountain.
The victims were later named by police as John Twyford, aged 15, of Purley, Surrey; Christopher Burn, 14, of Sydenham, Kent and Michael Wicks, of Bromley, Kent.
Mountain rescue team leader Chris Briggs, who led other members of the party to safety, said: “The spot where the boys fell is notorious – only people with ice axes should tackle it.
“I didn’t see any ice axes and the boys were not roped together.
“The whole walk was perfectly feasible but the snow was melting and refreezing persistently. The boys couldn’t have been expected to see the ice.”
The school party had been following the Snowdon Mountain railway track from the summit. The boys fell at a spot where the track nears the edge.
The cliffs of Clogwyn Coch can be seen clearly from Clogwyn station on the Snowdon Mountain Railway and are close to the rock climbs of Clogwyn Du’r Arddu.
The Times reported Mr F R Thomas, the Dulwich College deputy head, as stating parties of boys often went on similar expeditions.
“Some of the boys who were climbing Snowdon were experienced and had made a trip to Iceland to go climbing. They all had climbing experience.
“I have no doubt in my mind that the party was doing the right thing when the accident happened. I have spoken to the masters involved in the expedition and they have assured me that the rules of climbing were being adhered to.”
One of the dead boys, Christopher Burn, had taken part in a televised quiz show with his sister and two brothers shortly before his death. Paying tribute they described him as “a brilliant boy”.
The group travelled back to London after being interviewed by police at Llanberis police station. More statements were taken from rescue team members for the coroner’s inquest which took place at Bangor a few weeks later.
The coroner, John Pritchard Jones, who recorded a verdict of accidental death, said the only criticism he had was the lack of ice axes and knowledge.
The incident, and another similar tragedy in Scotland that winter, sparked a call for such trips by youth parties to be banned.
Mr Briggs, who then owned and ran the Pen y Gwryd hotel and had been involved in mountain rescue for more than 25 years in 1972, said such a ban was easy to propose but almost impossible to impose. He supported, however, a suggestion for a protective barrier at the point where the boys had fallen.
He told the Times: “A safety fence at that point would be a good idea. There have been 20 fatal accidents there that I can remember.
“Anyone who starts to slide there has little chance unless he is correctly roped or wearing crampons and using an ice-axe.
“It is tragic but something one must accept if people continue to explore mountains.”