In the early evening of Sunday 30th June, Aberdyfi Search & Rescue Team (ASART) was made aware of a couple lost on Cadair Idris. 

Using ‘Sarloc’, the pair were located on the east ridge, and talked back to their correct route. The Team was put on standby, but was stood down an hour later once the pair had reached the lower slopes.

At 11 p.m. on Saturday night Aberdyfi Search & Rescue Team (ASART) was called out to search for a party of teenagers on a
Duke of Edinburgh Expedition who had become disorientated in the extensive and mountainous forest above Pantperthog near Machynlleth.

The team immediately began a vehicle search, sweeping the extensive network of forestry trails. The rugged and tree-covered
terrain made communications difficult, both by radio or mobile phone, and vehicles often were working independently. The party was located and reunited with their remote supervisors shortly after midnight.

The SARLOC application was back in action today, remotely locating  a couple lost on Cadair Idris, and enabling the Rescue Manager to safely redirect them back onto the Pony Path and to monitor their progress down off the mountain. The team was placed on standby, and was stood-down once the pair reached the lower slopes. In terms of response times and manpower, the SARLOC software is proving itself a great asset to the team.

In the early evening of Wednesday 26th June, Aberdyfi Search & Rescue Team (ASART) was made aware of a party of teenagers on a Duke of Edinburgh Expedition who had become disorientated in the hills above Abergynolwyn. 

Using ‘Sarloc’, an application designed to work with smartphones, the rescue manager was able to locate the group remotely and give them directions on how to proceed. The group had lost confidence in their own abilities, and were hesitant about moving on from their current location, so a small party of ASART volunteers was readied to walk them off the hill. In the
event, the location information enabled the expedition’s remote supervisor to regain contact with the group, and the Team were stood down.

Rescuers initiate Sarloc by sending the missing party a text message with a link to a webpage. Clicking on this link opens a
page in the phone's browser which queries the phone to identify its location. This location data is then relayed to the Mountain Rescue Team. 
 
“The software requires a phone with a good signal, internet capabilities and GPS, and unfortunately, many of the mountainous areas still have patchy mobile coverage”, said Chris Dunn, the Team Leader who deployed the app. “We always encourage people enjoying the outdoors to take responsibility for their own safety, but this gives us another useful tool when things go wrong in an area with mobile coverage.”

In the early evening of Friday, Aberdyfi Search & Rescue Team was made aware of a couple lost on Cadair Idris. The pair, who were well equipped for a day on the mountain, had missed their intended path in the mist that descended through the afternoon, and found themselves on a spur above the Tal-y-llyn pass surrounded on three sides by cliffs. They had attempted to descend but as the terrain became steeper, and without knowing what lay below, they thought better of it. Retracing their steps to safer ground, they identified their position and called for help. A small team of volunteers from the Aberdyfi Team located the walkers and escorted them safely off the hill.

“The walkers had given us a very accurate grid reference for their position, so we were able to find them, and get them off the mountain relatively quickly” said Team member Graham O’Hanlon. “Calling for help rather than pressing on into the unknown was the right thing to do. We’d much rather walk people down from the top of a crag than stretcher them out from the bottom.”