The Coastguard helicopter hovers above the casualty, viewed from the original given location. Photo: Aberdyfi SRT

A passing walker guided rescuers to an injured woman on a Snowdonia mountain, after the team had been told she was on a different peak.

Aberdyfi Search and Rescue Team was called out about 4.20pm on Friday after being alerted to a walker with an ankle injury on Cadair Idris.

A team spokesperson said: “Call handlers spoke to the partner of the 51-year-old woman, who was with her on the hill, and obtained a fairly specific description of the path they were on and distances from a key feature.

“This differed slightly from the description provided to North Wales Police, but not greatly so.

“As the first volunteers from the team were making their way up the hill to the casualty site, they encountered a walker coming down off the mountain who said he had recently passed the pair on a completely different part of the mountain.

“While team members followed up this new report, others continued searching the originally reported area to no avail.

“Eventually, the injured woman and partner were located at the position described by the walker, high on the slopes on Mynydd Moel, on a different path, more than a kilometre away and more than 350m higher than the position given.”

The spokesperson said the team requested the help of the Caernarfon Coastguard helicopter because of the altitude of the incident and the approaching nightfall.

The injured walker was airlifted from the mountain and flown to Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor for further treatment. The rescue ended at 8.30pm.

Team volunteer Graham O’Hanlon who took part in the rescue said: “Without the chance encounter with the walker, and having had such a specific first-hand description of location, we would have expended a great deal of effort combing the first area.

“The operation would have eventually expanded, but it would have been some time before we started searching areas that far removed from the described point.”