A HILL walker injured in a fall on Yr Wyddfa became the 300th callout this year for Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team.

Calls out to Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team have risen by 300 per cent compared to 15 years ago.

Incidents, which often happen during busy holiday period, are placing huge pressure on the volunteers.

The team have also received their 301st call-out which involved a pair of walkers who had become stuck in full winter conditions near the top of Snowdon.

Dr Richard Griffiths, Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team Chair, said: “We are hugely lucky that our volunteers are willing to go out at any time of day to rescue fellow walkers, climbers, runners and mountain bikers whose day has gone wrong.

“Our average member attends around 40 callouts per year. The time impact on them and their families' lives cannot be understated.

“This has been our busiest year yet, and as we get busier and busier there is a very real risk that the service becomes overloaded and we are not able to respond to those in need quickly.”

The rising number of call-outs also increases the frequency of traumatic, complex and dangerous incidents attended by team members, which all bring associated impacts on the wellbeing of the team’s volunteers.

While all team members are passionate about volunteering their time to help people in the mountains and dedicate themselves to the training needed to do this safely, balancing this commitment with their personal lives is an increasingly difficult task.

Dr Griffiths said: “Our 56 operational team members have done over 8,000 hours of rescue work so far in 2023. On top of this we have to attend regular team trainings, maintain equipment, raise the funds needed to run a charity and many other non-rescue roles too numerous to mention.

“As a group of volunteers we are nearing the limit of what we can do to support those in need in the mountains."

The hill walker had a head injury and was safely evacuated to Ysbyty Gwynedd.

Yr Wyddfa stands as the United Kingdom’s and possibly, the world’s, busiest mountain with more than 500,000 visitors a year.

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This has led to Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team's distinction as the most active mountain rescue team in the country. Since surpassing 100 incidents in 2008, volunteers now experience 300 per cent the number of call-outs, a remarkable increase over the past 15 years and an increasingly unsustainable growth rate for a small charity run entirely by volunteers.

Dr Griffiths said: “In the coming years we will be looking to continue our work with other stakeholders to reduce the number of mountain incidents on Yr Wyddfa and to build our capacity to respond to this increasing demand.

"In the meantime, we continue to encourage walkers and climbers to prepare adequately so that they enjoy their time in the mountains by following the key messages from Adventure Smart UK.”