Two men who died on Yr Wyddfa tried calling 999, inquest hears

Two friends who died on a ridge in Snowdonia attempted to call 999 but the alert was not escalated 'as it should have been', an inquest heard. Eddie Hill, 20, and Jayden Long, 19, both from Dereham, Norfolk, were found by a mountain‑rescue team in Eryri on 19 February. The pair had been walking Crib y Ddysgl, a ridge that reaches 1,065 m (3,494 ft) and lies less than a mile north of Yr Wyddfa’s summit, linking to the notorious Crib Goch scramble. Philip Benbow, lead co‑ordinator of the Llanberis Mountain Rescue squad, told Gwynedd Coroner’s Court in Caernarfon that he was alerted by North Wales Police on the evening of 18 February to an abandoned 999 call made three hours earlier from a male believed to be on Crib y Ddysgl. The call was later traced to Long’s mobile phone. After further enquiries—including contact with family members, mountain‑rescue units and a coastguard helicopter—search teams examined the men’s last known position but found no trace. A decision was taken to resume the search at first light. A search‑and‑rescue dog squad joined the mountain rescuers on the morning of 19 February. At 10:46, two team members spotted a possible track in the snow; a drone and the coastguard helicopter were dispatched to the site, where the bodies were located and deaths confirmed. Benbow described the conditions on the ridge as "full wintertime conditions". He said Long’s family had told him the teenager had previously walked in the Lake and Peak Districts but this was his first visit to Eryri. Although the pair wore spiked footwear, they lacked crampons and ice axes, Benbow added. He noted that signage at various points in the mountain range warns that certain routes require experienced climbers, with Crib Goch labelled an 'extreme scramble'. At the time of the initial alert, Benbow said, there was insufficient information about the call’s location and nature to deploy immediately. Det Con James Lloyd of North Wales Police’s Professional Standards Department told the hearing that, although the control room attempted further contact with the 999 caller, "the incident wasn't escalated as it should have been". He added that there had been 'learning' for staff and the force to pass similar calls to mountain rescuers sooner for them to assess. Long’s father, questioning Lloyd via videolink, characterised the response as "incompetence". Lloyd replied that he found no evidence that the staff’s actions contributed to the deaths of the two men. Assistant Coroner for North West Wales Sarah Riley stated that both men suffered multiple traumatic injuries. The inquest continues.