The walkers got into difficulties above Milestone Buttress. Photo: Ian Greig CC-BY-SA-2.0

Three people were rescued from a Snowdonia mountain after they took the wrong route and ended up on steep terrain.

The trio called for help after getting into difficulties while coming down Tryfan.

Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation was alerted about 5.30pm on Sunday.

Two women and a man, all in their early 20s, were descending the North Ridge after making it to the summit. They mistook a well-worn goat track below the Cannon Rock for the way down, and made their way down a gully on the West Face towards the Milestone Buttress.

Chris Lloyd of the mountain rescue team said: “When descending one of the steeper parts, they realised that they were off route and that this was not an easy way down.

“They telephoned for assistance but were not sure exactly where they were.

“A team member was deployed to scour the West Face with binoculars, while the team leader successfully located them with Sarloc.”

The Sarloc system, developed by former Ogwen Valley MRO member Russ Hore, enables a hyperlink to be sent to a smartphone which, when followed, sends a message which enables rescuers to pinpoint the phone’s location.

Mr Lloyd said: “A hasty team of four was deployed to approach them from above, descend to them, then walk them to safety.

“As this was happening, we were informed that one of the girls had had a short fall of about one metre and had injured her wrist. Meanwhile another team was deployed to ‘meet and greet them at the bottom of the gully’.

“Once the hasty team met up with the party of three, the young man and one young woman were escorted out along a series of ledges to the steep footpath.

“The woman with the injured wrist explained how she had slipped the one metre, landing on her wrist but continued her fall a short distance but hurt her back.

“So a stretcher party was requested.”

The team brought its stretcher and up to the site and requested help from a search and rescue helicopter from RAF Valley in Anglesey.

Mr Lloyd said flying conditions were poor, often the case where the West Face meets the North Ridge, but he winchman was eventually lowered to the injured woman.

He said: “After several efforts the RAF stretcher was lowered.

“The casualty was winched and taken to Ysbyty Gwynedd [in Bangor].”

The two men were walked off the mountain to the team’s base. The rescue concluded about 9pm.

It was the team’s 56th callout of the year and involved 19 volunteer members.