Snowdon, scene of the two separate rescues of ill prepared walkers. Photo: Martin V Morris

Within hours of the launch of a mountain safety campaign, rescuers had to go to the aid of ill equipped would-be summiteers on Wales’s highest mountain.

And the following day, another pair of poorly prepared walkers had to be rescued after slipping 60m (200ft) on the same mountain, Snowdon. A rescuer said the two were ‘lucky to be alive’.

North Wales Police led the call not to venture on to Snowdonia’s mountains unless properly equipped and experienced. The MountainSafe campaign has the backing of mountain rescue teams, the national park authority, the British Mountaineering Council and other mountain experts. The launch campaign followed a grim season last winter in which four men died in an 11-day period on Snowdon.

All four rescued men were wearing only trainers and tracksuits. In snow and ice, mountain experts advise using ice-axes and crampons on Snowdonia’s mountains.

The first pair, students from London, were rescued by members of Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team from the Snowdon Ranger Path after becoming exhausted. They were airlifted to hospital by a Sea King helicopter from RAF Valley.

Elfyn Jones of the rescue team said they had no protective clothing and no torches.

The following day, two men from Warrington slipped down the snow field near Clogwyn Station. The site is close to the notorious convex slope that can end in a drop over the crags of Clogwyn Coch if a slide is not arrested.

The walkers, in their 20s, were found using a thermal-imaging camera after members of the Llanberis MRT followed their trail in the snow.

Mr Jones called both incidents ‘totally unnecessary’.

John Blackwell, 70, of Salisbury, died when he fell 25m (80ft) from the Snowdon Ranger Path earlier this month.