Figures reveal North Wales mountain rescuers were ‘busiest in England and Wales’ during first quarter of 2022

New figures show two mountain rescue teams in North Wales were the “busiest in England and Wales” during the first quarter of 2022.

The statistics covering the period between January and the end of March this year show that the Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team was called out the most times to 46 incidents.

The Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation was just behind in second after attending 34 incidents.

The next busiest teams across the two countries were the Central Beacons Mountain Rescue Team in south Wales (31) and Keswick Mountain Rescue Team in the Lake District (also 31).

The North Wales Mountain Rescue Association said it was not necessarily a wanted accolade for the region’s two teams.

In a post on Facebook, it said: “Not the sort of “competition” you want to win… but Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team and Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation were the two busiest teams in England and Wales, with 46 and 34 incidents each. This isn’t even the busy quarter!”

Flintshire based North East Wales Search and Rescue Team (NEWSAR) were called out 22 times, during the first quarter of 2022, a team spokesperson told Deeside.com callouts are “trending slightly above last year.”

Call out figures for other North Wales mountain rescue teams include Aberdyfi (10), Aberglaslyn (8) and South Snowdonia (5).

It puts the total number of incidents in the region for the period at 125, the second busiest area behind the Lake District with 152 incidents.

The figures were detailed in the spring edition of the Mountain Rescue Magazine.

It also highlights statistics showing the busiest days and months for incidents across Wales and England, as well as the main causes.

Saturdays (26%) and Sundays (21%) perhaps unsurprisingly accounted for the highest percentage of incidents with January (43%) the busiest month.

Human error (17%) was cited as the biggest contributing factor, followed by inexperience (12%) and bad decision making (11%).