Cwm Idwal. Photo: Tony Cassidy CC-BY-SA-2.0

A mountain rescue team found itself at the centre of a soap drama after a climber became wedged following a fall.

Members of the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation resorted to copious quantities of washing-up liquid to free the woman from a route in Cwm Idwal at the weekend.

Chris Lloyd of the rescue team said the callout was the third of the day on Saturday. “We received a call for a fallen leader rock climber on Gribin Facet, a popular crag at the entrance to Cwm Idwal in the Ogwen Valley,” he said.

“Her leg had slipped down a crack and was trapped. We had great concern this woman in her early 20s as there was a risk of tissues swelling and preventing easy extraction. Whilst team members were lowered from the top, others were setting up ropeway evacuations for down the crag and then across the boulder field.

“With the aid of ropes to pull her up and a bottle of washing-up liquid, the limb was extracted. She was lowered to the ground and was able to walk off the mountain to her car…and drive away!”

The rescue was one of several that kept the team busy on a bank holiday weekend that was aimed at raising the profile of mountain and cave rescue teams throughout England and Wales.

The Ogwen Valley team was first called at 11am on Saturday to a woman in her 50s who had taken a tumbling fall of about 18m (60 feet) while scrambling with a party of five others on Tryfan’s north ridge.

Mr Lloyd said: “After a fall like that, we had to suspect back and neck injuries. We called for the assistance of 22 Squadron, RAF Valley. They flew in and were able to winch the lady and fly her to hospital in Bangor.

“This was a really bad luck accident but one that can and does happen very easily on the famous north ridge.”

Two hours later, the team received a report that a 60-year-old man had suffered severe cuts to his face and hands after a fall on the small rocky top of Foel Ganol while walking with a small group on the northern end of the Carneddau. He was given first aid by the rescuers then walked to the team’s 4×4 vehicles and driven to hospital in Bangor.

On Sunday the team was due to take part in technical rope rescue training. But during the session, it received two calls within 10 minutes of each other.

Team members went to the aid of a climber who had landed on his buttock after falling 6m (20ft) while leading a climb on the Amphitheatre Buttress route on Craig yr Isfa on Carnedd Llewelyn’s east face.

The climber, in his 20s and from Guildford, has suffered possible pelvic injuries and a damaged wrist. The Sea King helicopter was requested from RAF Valley but within moments of the winchman landing at the site, the crew was called away to a reported head injury on Snowdon, leaving the team with the prospect of a stretcher carry-out lasting several hours.

Meanwhile other team members were attending a woman who had fallen on Carnedd Dafydd. A couple in their 60s from the Chester area were on a scrambling section of Crib Lem, a ridge north of the summit.

The woman had injured her chest, arm and back in a 4½m (15ft) fall.

Chris Lloyd described the rescue: “By the time she had been located and treated, the Sea King helicopter was able to winch her aboard then overfly the Carneddau to Craig yr Isfa where we had now lowered the casualty several hundred feet down the screes to the valley floor and were on our way for a two mile stretcher carry to the road head.

“Both these casualties were flown to hospital near Rhyl – Bangor was full!

“All these accidents could be regarded as bad luck. They happened in good weather to people who were well equipped and seemed experienced.”

The Ogwen Valley team has now dealt with 33 incidents this year, involving 44 people – an average of one callout every four days.