Rescuers in four-hour mission to free sheepdog stuck in 25 meter deep mountain crevice

A mountain rescuer spent more than two hours in an 80ft (25m) rock crevice on the side of Wales’s highest mountain in a delicate mission to rescue a fallen sheepdog. Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team successfully extracted the dog who went missing when he was bringing sheep down from Snowdon. The dog’s owner enlisted the help of the team on Sunday and half a dozen volunteer rescuers set out about 3.30pm to search for the dog. Rob Johnson of the team said the rescuers made their way up Clogwyn Mawr with the farmer, to where the dog Chip had last been seen two days earlier.

Mr Johnson said: “As we approached the crag the farmer could hear whining from within the mountain. We knew then that this was going to be interesting. The approach to the crag was delayed slightly as in our scramble approach one team member dislodged two boulders that trapped his leg. The boulders were removed by the efforts of two others and the search continued. The dog was found stuck in the bottom of a rock crevice that was 25 meters deep, extremely narrow and halfway up a steep crag.

“We rigged a belay and dropped ropes down the crevice. One team member was volunteered as being of the skinniest build and lowered down into the slot. About halfway down he became wedged and could proceed no further and so was pulled back up and out, much to his relief. The next volunteer was slight and lithe. She reached the same spot as the last and came to the verdict that some cunning was required.

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“Team members radioed for a climber’s clip stick, a long pole with a clip on the end, which was duly delivered within an hour or so; the whole time with our team member still in the narrow slot. She then spent another hour wriggling and worming her way down the remaining distance to within a metre of the bottom of the slot. From there she cleverly managed to clip the dog and they were both hauled to safety.” Mr Johnson said Chip was miraculously unhurt and walked off the mountain with the rescuers to the road. The rescue ended 4½ hours after the team members set out.