Rescuers were unable to use smartphone technology to find the lost pair. Photo: Aberdyfi SRT
Rescuers had to use detective work to find two walkers lost with a poor phone signal above a lake in north Wales.
Aberdyfi Search and Rescue Team was alerted about 5.30pm on Tuesday when the man and woman from Northampton reported themselves lost in mist above Lake Vyrnwy.
The team said the pair had been following a waymarked trail but lost the markers and ended up in an area of deep heather and gorse.
An Aberdyfi SRT spokesperson said: “Disorientated and confused in deteriorating conditions, the couple were not able to offer any idea about their whereabouts other than being above the lake and that they parked at the dam end.
“With phone signals too poor to make use of any of the usual strategies to quiz smartphones for location information, it took some inspired detective work on the part of the handler to be able to transform this information into a feasible search area.”
Team volunteers made their way to the Lake Vyrnwy Hotel car park where the local gamekeeper was able to escort a team vehicle up a hill track to within a few hundred metres of where the walkers were eventually found, cold but uninjured.
The rescue ended about 10pm.
SL
23 September 2020I guess the days are long gone when people got themselves out of this type of situation. Being lost doesn't (shouldn't) warrant needing 'rescued'.
This may be a sore point but going to the aid of people who report themselves as lost should result in a predetermined payment because the MRT has been used as a guiding service.
Why couldn't they have walked the few hundred yards to the track the rescue team used. Unless they were worried about falling form the grating found in among the heather & gorse.
David Guy-Johnson
24 September 2020Just been looking at the area, it seems all they had to do was walk downhill through the trees and onto the road. Clueless idiots. I suspect they didn't want to be too inconvenienced by having to walk a longer way back to their car.
MCMLVII
24 September 2020Did they have a map & compass or did they use their mobile phone as a GPS / map? If they had What3words - they could have used that to within 10m accuracy. Far too often are the younger generations reliant on being rescued.
1 Go prepared - map & compass (the battery does not wear out
2 Head torch / spare cells
3 Look at weather conditions and add more clothes in dry bags for the 'I will need it' later stage
4 Take emergency food / cooker / overnight divvy bag
5 Go on a Outdoor Centre map reading course / basic of survival course
I hope you made or will make a decent donation to the Aberdyfi SRT money tin