At about 8:00 pm on August Bank Holiday Monday, Aberdyfi Search and Rescue Team (ASART) was called to assist in the search for a missing seven-year old boy on Cadair Idris.

The child was part of a larger group from Manchester, who had fragmented into
two parties during their time on the mountain, and each assumed the child was
with the others. The party was lightly equipped, and had no provision for a long stay on the mountain, or for the rapidly encroaching darkness.

As volunteers from the Team assembled, a Hasty-Party was dispatched to assess the situation and met a very confusing scene of separate groups of party members and onlookers spread out on the mountainside. The child had been identified as being stuck on a grass ledge a third of the way down the very steep Cyfrwy crag face, and the Rescuers were able to give a grid-reference to the inbound ‘Rescue 122’ Sea King helicopter from RAF Valley. The very steep nature of his location meant that a helicopter rescue may not have been possible, so other ASART volunteers started making their way up the hill carrying the heavy crag-rescue equipment.

In the meantime, other problems started to appear. One of the walking group at the foot of the cliff, a 70 year old man, was diabetic, and having neither food nor water to manage his condition, was starting to feel ill. Elsewhere in the same group, an injured knee was reported.

After some very skilful flying, and assisted by the still, clear conditions, the winch-man from Rescue 122 was able to secure the child, and the pair were hoisted back onboard the aircraft. Having delivered the child, who was shaken but uninjured by his
experience, back to the Ty Nant car-park at the foot of the mountain, the pilot returned to the base of the cliff to pick up a further four of the party, including the diabetic man.

The ASART members on the hill were just setting about their descent off the mountain when news arrived from North Wales Police of a male paraglider from Cardiff who was benighted on the summit of Cadair Idris, and was resigned to spending the night in the summit shelter. The team prepared to turn back uphill again, but fortunately Rescue 122 also got this information,
making a third trip to the summit area to pick up the man, before heading north to attend another emergency near Caernarfon. The Team was down off the mountain by 11:30 pm for one of their most ‘incident-rich’ call-outs for some time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-23853982

Volunteers from the Team were in action twice through the day:

1. Whilst making their way down to Minffordd car park off Cadair Idris, two team members came across a lady suffering severe pain in both legs .They gave support and assistance from the slate bridge to the car park, a journey which
   takes 15 mins normally but took the party 1.5 hrs. She was very gratefull.
   
2. North Wales Police contacted the Team just before 10-00pm regarding 2 reports of a flashing light  spotted in the vicinity of Cadair summit. The reports came from different valleys giving different views of the summit, so two team members visited the scenes of the sightings  and also checked the Cadair Idris car parks  for possible evidence. A number of vehicles were parked-up,meaning that quite a large number of people were out on the mountain (not an unusual situation for a Bank Holiday with good weather). No further sightings of lights were made, and the conclusion was that it was walkers camping near the summit---a false alarm with good intent.

At around 7;30 pm the Team was put on standby to assist a group of walkers on the summit of Cadair Idris. The group had become enveloped in low cloud, and took shelter in the summit hut  to wait for better conditions. When it became apparent that this was not going to happen, and finding themselves disorientated in the mist with night approaching they decided to call for help. With a known position (the shelter) and a detailed knowledge of the summit terrain, the Rescue Coordinator was able to guide the party by mobile phone, getting them onto the Pony Path and  below the cloud base, where they were able to make their own descent. The team were st

At about 7:30 pm on Saturday evening 3rd August, Aberdyfi Search and Rescue Team was called to assist a couple lost on Cadair Idris.

 The walkers, a man and a woman from Lancashire, had set out in the morning to climb the mountain, but at some point became disorientated in the low cloud shrouding the upper slopes. They had made several attempts to self-rescue, but having found themselves in very difficult terrain, and with the threat of failing light encroaching, they had conceded defeat and called for assistance.

Due to poor phone coverage at the walkers’ location, the SARLOC smartphone application failed to give the rescue coordinator an accurate location for the pair, so there was no opportunity to guide them back onto a safe route by phone.
A party of volunteers from the Rescue Team was deployed up the Minffordd path, located the walkers near Llyn Cau, and escorted them safely off the mountain. The pair were in good physical condition if a little embarrassed about the
inconvenience they had caused.

“As this incident demonstrates, it is very to get disorientated when visibility deteriorates, even on a popular mountain like
Cadair Idris,” said Team Member Graham O’Hanlon. “We always encourage people to carry suitable equipment, including a map and compass, when heading for the hills, and just as important, they should know how to use them.”