Man and woman were in Snowdonia in freezing conditions, says report

Mar 1, 2013 15:06 GMT  ·  By
Prince William took part in a dangerous rescue mission, saved the lives of two people
   Prince William took part in a dangerous rescue mission, saved the lives of two people

Prince William has just taken part in a dangerous rescue operation that saw a stranded couple flown to safety, it has emerged. In flying them out of the danger zone, he faced dreadful weather conditions, risking his own life.

The Mirror reports that the couple, a man and a woman in their 40s and 50s, respectively, were left stranded in Snowdonia in north Wales after going there without the proper equipment.

When Prince William flew there in his helicopter the morning after they went missing, they had sought refuge above Devil’s Kitchen.

Friends of the couple, worried that they had not returned by nightfall, called the police.

“They had ventured onto the Glyder range in north Wales but had no crampons or ice axes and were unable to get off the mountain in the snow before it went dark. They also had no mobile phone signal so were forced to spent the night in freezing conditions,” the Mirror says.

“They were winched aboard the aircraft unharmed in what rescuers described as ‘quite difficult’ bitterly cold, cloudy and windy conditions,” the report goes on to say.

The difficult weather conditions also meant that whoever flew the helicopter had to have plenty experience to carry the rescue mission to term.

“They were well-equipped apart from the lack of ice axes and crampons, and did the right thing to stay put. It’s quite treacherous if you walk the wrong way. They had arranged to ring a friend every evening and when they failed to do so the friend called police,” Chris Lloyd, of Ogwen Valley mountain rescue team, says for the aforementioned media outlet.

“The helicopter came about 1am to search the mountain which was quite difficult with patches of low cloud. Flying in the mountains at night with banks of low cloud requires great skill,” Lloyd adds.