Be prepared before exploring mountains, experts warn
Search and rescue experts have warned walkers to ensure they are properly equipped before going out on the Welsh mountains.
The Aberdyfi Search & Rescue Team said two hill-walkers lost on Cader Idris last weekend were in inadequate clothing with no maps, torch or power on their phones.
It was only good fortune that rescuers heard them shouting and they did not have a miserable and potentially life-threatening wait, the team said.
The couple, a male and female both in their 20s, were visiting the area from South Wales for the weekend, spokesman Graham O'Hanlon said.
"They had set out to climb the mountain after lunchtime on Sunday but were poorly equipped for the task, with inadequate clothing and footwear, no map and no torch.
"Having reached the summit and begun their descent, the walkers took a wrong turn in the mist and found themselves lost as darkness fell.
"By the time they had called for help one mobile phone was already flat and the other battery had just four per cent power."
They made a call for help at around 5:30pm.
Lucky
"A call-handler was able to make telephone contact with the walkers, and with the last of their phone battery they were able to activate the "PhoneFind" protocol already sent to them, and which informed the team of their exact location. Having established their position, and with further contact unlikely before the phone expired, the pair were asked to remain at that point on the hill.
"Team volunteers made their way up the mountain, but on reaching the location found no sign of the missing walkers. Eventually a response to the rescuer's shouts was heard, and searching through the mist and darkness the pair were eventually found around 700m from their "known" location, having descended into steep and difficult ground.
Cold, but otherwise unhurt, the pair were provided with some suitable clothing and escorted down off the mountain. Everyone was safely down at the carpark by 9.45pm.
"The walkers had a lucky escape" said Mr O'Hanlon, a spokesperson for the Team.
"Having left their identified position, it was only good fortune in the shape of a calm, mild evening that meant that we could still hear their shouts.
"With only a slight increase in the wind this would have been impossible, and with no other means of attracting our attention we could easily have missed them.
"They were not equipped for the terrain they had strayed into, nor the rain that came in as the team was exiting the mountain, and would have spent a miserable and potentially life-threatening wait as we searched the mountain."
