On Saturday evening, Aberdyfi Search & Rescue Team were made aware of eleven dogs trapped in a gorge on the Plynlumon range near Aberystwyth. The dogs belong to a local hound pack who were on the hillside for a trailing exercise. The pack had scrambled into the gorge but, having reached the bottom, could not climb back up the steep and slippery rocks. With darkness already fallen the decision was made to postpone any attempts at a rescue until daylight in order to avoid any unnecessary risk to the rescue team volunteers. With an early start, and braving some appalling weather conditions, fifteen members of the Team gathered near Bwlch y Garreg, Aberhosan to start extracting the dogs. Assisted by some of the pack owners, a small team of rescuers abseiled into the gorge and loaded each dog into a canvas sack in order to be hauled out. After 14 trips down into the gorge, and just before nightfall, all eleven dogs had been recovered unharmed, making for a long, tiring but ultimately quite satisfying day for the Team. Weve rescued plenty of dogs over the years said ASART volunteer Glyn Davies, but eleven in one go has to be something of a record for the team. The dogs were reunited with their owners waiting at the top of the gorge. Team Leader Chris Dunn helped co-ordinate the operation. The rescue of dogs, whether they belong to visitors or local farmers, is a fairly common occurrence for the Team. Volunteers are made fully aware of the nature of the call-out, so can make their own choices about involvement, but we invariably have an extremely good response, as was the case on Sunday. Many volunteers arrived with pockets full of dog-biscuits, which was probably not ideal given the heavy rain, but ultimately well received down at the bottom of the gorge. Such events also give us an excellent chance to practice our technical rope rescue skills, and with a number of trainee members in attendance the day provided an excellent learning opportunity added Chris.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 17:52:50 +0000
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