At around 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aberdyfi Search & Rescue Team was made aware of an injured mountain biker on a bridleway above the village of Arthog on the Mawddach Estuary.

The rider, a forty-one year old man from Flintshire, had gone over his handlebars on the steep track and sustained a serious injury to his elbow. The incident also triggered severe cramps in both legs leaving him unable to walk out. The man's riding partner, a friend of the Team, was able to pin- point their location, and ASART volunteers living locally were quickly on site.

The elbow injury was stabilised and then the casualty was carried a short distance to the end of the track where an ambulance was able to convey him to hospital-based care. His elbow turned out to be dislocated but not broken.

Everyone was safely off the hill by 3:30 p.m.

At about 7:30 p.m. call-handlers from Aberdyfi Search & Rescue Team were alerted to two lost walkers on Cadair Idris, one of whom was experiencing problems with an injured knee.

The two walkers, a man and woman in their 20's and from the Birmingham area, had set out from Minffordd earlier in the day, but had become disorientated in poor visibility on the upper ridges of the mountain and had unintentionally descended  on the north side rather than the south side of the range. Their passage through increasingly broken ground had started to aggravate an existing  injury in the mans knee, and when darkness fell they sensibly decided to seek assistance from Mountain Rescue.

Call-handlers were able to deploy the SARLOC application which is able to quiz the casualties smartphones for its GPS location, and got an exact position for the couple. A small party of ASART  volunteers was then able to make their way directly to casualties'  location. The pair were escorted down off the mountain to Gwernan Lake, a slow process given the tussock and gorse-covered nature of the hillside, and everyone was off the hill by 11:00 p.m.

At about 6:30 p.m. on Saturday evening, Aberdyfi SART call-handlers were alerted via North Wales Police and Dyfed-Powys Police to a seriously injured man at Cwmystwyth, south of Devil's Bridge in Powys.

The man was reported to have fallen from rocks on the top of a hill, sustaining a significant head injury which left him unconscious for 10 minutes, and also a suspected  broken leg.  The Team was put on standby but given the seriousness of the injuries and the time it would take the Team to assemble at the location, the possibility of air-evacuation was investigated.

The scene was attended by the air ambulance and a Dyfed-Powys Police support helicopter, but with neither craft having winching capability, and the casualty in a difficult to reach position, the assistance of the RAF 122 Sea-King was sought.

The Sea King was delayed through operational reasons, but still able to attend  quicker than the volunteers of ASART would have been able to reach the scene. At around 8:00 p.m. the man was winched into Rescue 122 and given the potential nature of his injuries, was transferred to hospital in Stoke. The Team was stood-down once he was aboard the aircraft.

At 9:30 p.m. Aberdyfi Search and Rescue Team were made aware of a missing walker on Cadair Idris. The man had last been seen at around 5:00 p.m. when he became separated from his wife and daughter, who descended the mountain via the Minffordd path and raised the alarm.


With encroaching darkness and deteriorating weather the Team was put on standby while call-handlers did their best to get more details. With no clear picture of basic information such as what side of the mountain he might be on, and the phone of both the man and his wife going straight to voicemail, the team braced itself for a long night. Fortunately, at around 10:00 p.m., just as the first Team members were heading out to make a sweep of the roads, the man turned up and the team were stood down.

At about 5:15 p.m. on Wed 13th August, volunteers from Aberdyfi Search & Rescue Team were alerted to a woman lost on Cadair Idris.

The 21 year old woman had been walking up the Minffordd path with her parents and had pushed on for the summit as they decided to turn back. Some time later they received a call from the woman saying that she was lost in the cloud, and subsequent attempts to call her went directly to answerphone.

The Team was put on standby while call-handlers tried to gather what little information was available, but with no real clue to the woman's location, the mountain range presented a very large search area. The team was deployed to start searching, with members in vehicles sweeping the likely areas where she might have descended from the mountain, whilst others headed onto the mountain from various directions to search the areas where people tend to end up when lost in low cloud.

As it was starting to look like the search would continue into darkness, the woman turned up, cold and wet, at the Cross Foxes Pub and the search was stood-down. A total of 18 volunteers were involved in the operation, and everyone was safely down off the mountain by 9:30 p.m.

At around 3:15 p.m., volunteers from Aberdyfi Search and Rescue Team were made aware of an injured man at Dolgoch Falls near Abergynolwyn in Southern Snowdonia.

The 68 year old man from the Peterborough area was walking in a family group at the popular beauty-spot. On the steep ground of the river gorge he slipped and fell, tumbling for around 40 feet and sustaining head and leg injuries.

The incident was initially attended by paramedics from the Welsh Ambulance Service who treated the man's injuries. Assistance from ASART was requested to evacuate the man down the rocky path to the waiting air-ambulance, and 13 team members were involved in the operation. The man was flown to Ysbyty Gwynedd at Bangor for further hospital-based care.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-28768472

At 12:30 a.m. ASART call-handlers were made aware of a walker who had failed to return from climbing Cadair Idris the previous evening.

The 35 year-old man had set out up the Pony Path from Ty Nant  with his wife at about 7:45 p.m. At Rhiwgwaredydd, the path junction at the 560 m contour, the  lady became concerned by the dropping cloud-base and encroaching darkness and decided to turn for home. The man, some distance ahead, was informed of her decision by phone and said that she should wait at the car and that he would be about 30 minutes behind her.

By around 10:30 p.m., with no sign of her lightly clothed and equipped husband, no car keys, and no mobile signal, the lady sought assistance from a nearby campsite who gave her a lift to Dolgellau and she was able to contact North Wales Police. Once back in signal, her phone showed that the man had made repeated attempts to call her, but his phone was now going straight to voicemail.

The Team was called out to assist in the search for the man but at 12:58 a.m., just as many of the Team Volunteers were starting their journey to Ty Nant, he made it back to his car and the call-out was stood down.

At least one team member was back in bed by 1:00 a.m.