Craig yr Ysfa, right, scene of the rescue. Photo: Terry Hughes CC-BY-SA-2.0

Mountain rescuers have thanked two climbers who returned the team’s gear which was left in a gully during an incident last month.

Many of the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation’s runners and other protection were left by the team on a route on the Great Gully on Craig yr Isfa.

The climbing equipment was left behind after a marathon 11-hour rescue of three climbers on 23 July when one of the trio was airlifted to hospital and the other two helped to abseil off the crag, on Carnedd Llewelyn.

Chris Lloyd of the volunteer team said: “Sadly, we had to abandon quite a bit of gear in the gully in the interests of getting some very tired people off the mountain safely.”

After the rescue, ropes and a stretcher were recovered from the top of the crag by team members but Mr Lloyd made an appeal for any climbers to return found gear if they were on the route.

He said today: “The good news is that two rock-climbers who were climbing the Great Gully a few days later could not believe their luck when, as they climbed, their racks were being filled with more and more gear.

“Soon they realised that it belonged to Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation – one of them having visited Oggi Base as part of his training in years gone by – and so they returned it.

“Unfortunately we don’t have any names, but thank them for their honesty. Had we done another rescue on that crag soon afterwards, we might have been running short of gear.”

• The OVMRO is running its annual Oggi 8 Mountain Challenge this Saturday, involving the traverse of eight 3,000ft peaks in the area to raise funds for the team.