Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation

Ogwen Valley is the most northerly of the main valleys in the Snowdonia National Park, North Wales, UK. The mountains that surround the valley are about 1000 metres high and the terrain varies quite considerably. With eleven of the Welsh 3000-feet peaks and cliffs that reach about 300-400 metres in height our area is very popular with both walkers and climbers.

The Carneddau mountains to the north of our base at Bryn Poeth (Oggie Base) are high and open, but there is also open moorland with heather, bracken and sheep, as well as areas of dense forest and fast rivers around Capel Curig. This mixture of terrain calls for the team members to be competent in high angle rescue work as well as open terrain search and swift water techniques.

As a rescue team we now have over 100 callouts per year. There are approximately 50 people on the team, all volunteers, many of whom are qualified to a high standard of First Aid. We also have a number of Search Managers and Swift Water Rescue technicians. Although we are completely independent of the Police we work at their request; Team Members are then contacted by telephone or SMS. Our usual response time to an incident is typically 20 minutes before deploying someone on to the hill and a full team callout can be effected within 30 minutes. RAF Valley has a flight of Sea King SAR helicopters 20 minutes' flying time away and we often work together in rescuing and searching for people.

Oggie 8 2012

The fifth annual Oggie 8 Challenge will be held on Saturday 11th August 2012. Check the Oggie 8 Challenge page for full details.