Chocolate entices women into mountain misadventure

TWO women had to be rescued from Snowdonia on Thursday after hearing rumours of leftover chocolate from an Easter hunt on the slopes.

The pair, in their 30s, had to be rescued by mountain teams when they became stuck on a scree slope.

The women had gone in search of treats near Penmaenmawr, Conwy, after hearing that some Easter eggs had been left there after a village hunt.

They travelled 130 miles to Wales from Redditch in the West Midlands, and attempted to scale the lower part of the Y Gribin ridge, the rumoured location of the leftover chocolate.

But the pair retreated from the rock as it was too slippery and decided to climb a 200ft scree slope to the side of the ridge. However, they got into difficulty and found a flat ledge from where they called for help around 4.30pm when one of the women began to feel anxious.

With the help of a team of eight mountain rescuers, the women were extracted from the narrow ledge, and using ropes, they were guided back to safety. The young women eventually came away empty-handed – with no chocolate but also no injuries – and the rescue was complete by 6.05pm.

Their adventure came amid a busy week for the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue team in Snowdonia. The weekend saw them rescuing a woman with a broken ankle at Llyn Geirionydd on the

‘The chocolate hunters lost the confidence to descend 75 metres of loose scree so made the 999 call’

lower slopes of the Carneddau mountains, following a different call-out to save a climber who had fallen from Y Gribin ridge. On Wednesday, a helicopter was scrambled to rescue a man who had sustained a serious injury on Tryfan mountain in the Ogwen Valley.

Chris Lloyd, from the mountain rescue team, said of the egg hunters: “They lost the confidence to descend 75 metres of loose scree so made the 999 call. Three local team members ascended the loose scree and gave each woman a harness and a short length of confidence rope.”