Royal Watch News

Prince William rescues stranded walkers

Feb 27, 2013, 12:02 GMT

Prince William

Britain's Prince William helped rescued walkers stranded overnight in freezing conditions.

The future king - an RAF search-and-rescue pilot - was on duty yesterday (26.02.13) when he and his team got the call a couple in their 40s and 50s had got stranded while out in Snowdonia, Wales.

They had ventured onto the Glyder range in north Wales but had no crampons or ice axes and were unable to get off the mountain in the snow before it went dark.

They also had no mobile phone signal so were forced to spent the night in freezing conditions.

But fortunately, a friend noticed them missing and ten members of Ogwen Valley mountain rescue team were called out with search and rescue dogs, and the helicopter from RAF Valley in Anglesey - where William is based.

After two hours, the couple were found safe above the treacherous Devil's Kitchen, having decided to camp for the night in a bivouac.

Chris Lloyd, of Ogwen Valley mountain rescue team, told the Daily Mirror newspaper: 'They were well-equipped apart from the lack of ice axes and crampons, and did the right thing to stay put.

'It's quite treacherous if you walk the wrong way. They had arranged to ring a friend every evening and when they failed to do so the friend called police.'

'The helicopter came about 1am to search the mountain which was quite difficult with patches of low cloud.

'Flying in the mountains at night with banks of low cloud requires great skill.'