Tryfan, in the Ogwen Valley. Its summiteers proved hillwalkers are a trusty bunch

A student’s experiment in trust has seen hillwalkers take the moral high ground.

Paul Bellis Jones, a 24-year-old keen walker from Glan Conwy near Llandudno, was prompted to test humanity’s trustworthiness by a conversation with a friend who was bemoaning the fact no-one can be trusted. So Mr Bellis Jones put the theory to the test with a jaunt up Tryfan with his friends.

Armed with a disposable camera, he took a snap of his group then left the camera in a sealed bag, along with a note asking for walkers to take pictures of themselves with it, and leave it for the next walkers to come along.

It was left near Adam and Eve, the summit rocks famous for testing the nerve of scramblers brave enough to leap from one to the other.

Four days later, the camera turned up on his front doorstep, complete with a set of more than 30 photos of various walkers on the summit of the 915m (3,002ft) mountain in the Ogwen Valley, Snowdonia.

The camera had been found by national park warden Brian Jones, who at first thought the camera had been lost. After reading the attached note, he took the camera and dropped it off at the student’s home. Mr Jones told the Daily Post newspaper: “I was passing his home and just dropped it off. I’m glad the photos came out fine.”

Mr Bellis Jones rates Tryfan as his favourite mountain, and it was the ideal candidate, attracting fewer visitors than Snowdon, but still a popular peak.

The camera was left in mid May. He told the paper: “I was speaking to a friend who said you can’t trust anyone anywhere these days.

“I didn’t want to believe that, so I set up this experiment to find out what might happen and proved you can trust people.”