At around 5:30 p.m. call handlers from the Team were made aware of 3 men and a dog sheltering in the summit hut on Cader Idris.
The men, in their 30's and from the Birmingham area, had started up the Minffordd path with the intention of completing the Mynydd Moel loop, but after a food stop in the summit-hut, they stepped out to find the cloud had closed in to give extremely poor visibility. A short foray left them doubting their own navigation, and with the prospect of encroaching darkness they recognised that they might be in trouble. Finding their way back to the summit, a call was made to alert mountain rescue.
The group, appropriately equipped for a day on the mountain, initially intended to stay in the hut and try again at first light the following morning. However, with no overnight equipment and food all used up, coupled with poor ground conditions and the forecast for gales sweeping in overnight and into Monday, it was agreed that a rescue party would collect them and escort them down to safety.
With patches of snow and ice as far down as 350m, rescue volunteers made their way carefully up the ice-glazed rocks of the Pony Path to reach the stranded party. The men were in good spirits and ready to move, and rescuers were quickly picking their way back down the mountain again. Everyone was safely off the mountain by 10:00 p.m.
The men, in their 30's and from the Birmingham area, had started up the Minffordd path with the intention of completing the Mynydd Moel loop, but after a food stop in the summit-hut, they stepped out to find the cloud had closed in to give extremely poor visibility. A short foray left them doubting their own navigation, and with the prospect of encroaching darkness they recognised that they might be in trouble. Finding their way back to the summit, a call was made to alert mountain rescue.
The group, appropriately equipped for a day on the mountain, initially intended to stay in the hut and try again at first light the following morning. However, with no overnight equipment and food all used up, coupled with poor ground conditions and the forecast for gales sweeping in overnight and into Monday, it was agreed that a rescue party would collect them and escort them down to safety.
With patches of snow and ice as far down as 350m, rescue volunteers made their way carefully up the ice-glazed rocks of the Pony Path to reach the stranded party. The men were in good spirits and ready to move, and rescuers were quickly picking their way back down the mountain again. Everyone was safely off the mountain by 10:00 p.m.