Walker dies after 300ft plunge in Snowdonia

A walker has died after he plunged more than 300ft off the edge of the Devil’s Kitchen peak in Snowdonia and landed on a path in front of five other climbers.

The lone walker, in his 30s and thought to be from the south of England, was killed on impact after walking off the cliff edge and free falling for up to 330ft (100m) into the Ogwen Valley.

His body dropped on to a path ahead of a group of five friends walking down the mountain after a reunion party, and it was immediately clear to the walkers that the fall was fatal.

Around 20 volunteers from the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue team, who were training nearby, recovered the body at around 8.30pm on Saturday with the help of an RAF rescue team. Working in near-darkness, rescuers checked above the cliff to make sure that no one else was involved, and then carried the victim by stretcher 600ft down to an amphitheatre below cloud level where an RAF Sea King helicopter was able to winch the stretcher aboard.

“It is an unfortunate tragic accident,” said Chris Lloyd, of the Ogwen Valley team. “It looks like [the victim] made a navigational error and walked over the edge, free falling 75 to 100m. Possibly this was due to low cloud and greasy conditions under foot.”

North Wales Police were working last night to confirm the man’s identity and alert his next of kin.

Devil’s Kitchen, or Twll Du (Black Hole) in Welsh, is a well-known but tricky route above Cwm Idwal in the Ogwen Valley. Walkers must scramble up the tricky crack between rocks to reach the Glyder range of peaks and Y Garn in Snowdonia.