Snowdon, scene of the two incidents

A rescue team has appealed to hillgoers to remember the ethos of helping others in distress after two incidents on Wales’s highest mountain.

Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team released details of a Good Samaritan and one who was not so good after two walkers got lost on Snowdon in separate incidents.

On Sunday the team was contacted at 5.30pm by a member of the public who had found an exhausted young walker on the summit of the mountain.

A team spokesperson said: “Thankfully, the kind walker was prepared to assist the young lad down to meet our team members who were approaching from the Llanberis direction, even though he’d parked his car at the base of the Watkin path.

“Once the casualty was safely recovered North Wales Police kindly returned the good Samaritan to his vehicle.”

Rescue team members were less impressed by the actions of someone who left a woman stranded on the Pyg track on the mountain yesterday.

The team spokesperson said: “At 3.40pm we received a call regarding a lone walker who had become lost in the mist somewhere near the intersection between the Miners’ Track and the Pyg Track.

“As we made contact with the walker she reported that she had come across a member of the public who could help her down. As a result, the team were put on stand-by until we had confirmation that she had descended to safety.

“Unfortunately, rather than helping, the potential saviour soon rushed off into the mist ahead, leaving the walker high on the Pyg Track with darkness approaching and no torch.

“This meant that a number of our volunteers had to give up their time to go and search a large stretch of the footpath in order to find the lost walker an hour-and-a-half later.

“The team members who attended this incident were understandably frustrated by this, especially following the previous incident where a Good Samaritan helped walk a lost walker down to safety.

“Mountain rescue teams were first established in this spirit: a formalisation of a tradition where mountaineers help fellow mountaineers.

“You do not need to be a rescue team member to continue this tradition. If you see someone who looks like they could do with a hand, ask them how they’re doing; give them some advice; do anything but leave them to fend for themselves.”