Rookie climber airlifted off mountain after panic attack

A SCARED and exhausted man with a history of panic attacks was winched to safety by a coastguard rescue helicopter after becoming stuck on a precarious 3,000ft Snowdonia mountainside.

Rescuers said it was “yet another preventable call out on the west face of Tryfan”. A team of 12 members was dispatched for more than four hours to help rescue a group of nine men who had travelled from London in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The group had reportedly attempted to climb the west face with “no equipment, no experience and no knowledge of the route” before two members of the group pulled ahead to reach the summit. While three members of the group decided to turn back, the remainder of the party attempted to continue the climb before realising they did not know how to get back down.

Reporting on the incident Ogwen Valley mountain rescue team said: “The summit pair rang the group of four and advised them to turn back which they did, but they had no idea how to get down and strayed off the ridge on to the west face.

“One male then had a panic attack and could no longer move due to extreme exhaustion. A hill party located them and started to slowly move the whole group uphill to the ridge.”

The helicopter airlifted the walker to the mountain rescuers’ base.