Three Telford men rescued from mountain in Snowdonia after eight-hour ordeal

A mountain rescue team was scrambled to get the trio when they called for help after getting into difficulty.

During the rescue one of the mountain team fell and his helmet was shattered.

He was taken to hospital at Bangor for check-ups.

The young men, aged in their 20s, raised the alarm at 5pm on Saturday and 10 volunteers from the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue team headed in their direction.

The young men, who were described as being “poorly prepared”, were unable to give an exact location although they were able to tell the rescue team where they had been.

A smartphone app led to them being pinpointed on the West Face of Tryfan, which is the 15th highest mountain in Wales.

The three men had scrambled up to the summit of Tryfan but got into trouble on their descent.

Rescue team spokesman Chris Lloyd said: “They took the rather well-worn gully down the West Face.

“This led them into the notorious Y Gully, from which only the experienced or lucky escape. With failing daylight, low cloud and rain, they soon strayed on to steep and dangerous ground.

“As two of the young men had limited experience, they wisely called for assistance at about 5pm.

“Although they could describe where they had been, they had no idea whereabouts on the West Face they might be. Fortunately, the smartphone app SARLOC located them in the Y Gully area.”

The rescue team spotted the trio’s torch in-between periods of torrential rain, sleet and snow and low cloud, and volunteers got within 150ft of them.

But then a couple of team members had to make a difficult rock climb in the sleet and snow to reach the walkers and ropes were used to lower the men down the gully.

The lucky trio were eventually escorted off the peak by 1am following an eight-hour ordeal.

Yesterday the Ogwen Valley team returned to the gully to retrieve rescue equipment in daylight.