An Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Team Member who helped save the lives of two Kayakers has been recognised by the Royal Humane Society.
Alistair Read of Conway Valley was presented with the award by Assistant Chief Constable Gareth Pritchard on Thursday night (February 3) at The Interchange in Old for his actions on November 27, 2009.
On the day Mr Read was called to the Conwy Falls in Penmachno, after police and the emergency services were alerted to a group of kayakers who were in danger of being swept towards the falls.
A group of five kayakers had been travelling down the River Conwy but missed the get-out point above the bridge. One of the group raised the alarm after managing to escape the water before being swept under the bridge. On realising they were about be swept over the gorge leading to the Conwy waterfalls the other kayakers jettisoned their kayaks.
Although two members of the group were in a fairly safe position, the other two were caught up in a small eddy at the bottom of the cliffs which are about 50 to 60ft high and consist of a rock face interspersed with broken and loose rock, dropping vertically into the river. One kayaker had managed to grab hold of the cliff and the other was holding on to her but was struggling to keep himself from entering the moving water behind him.
Alistair arrived first and along with the Fire service began to set up ropes to try and secure the situation. Whilst secured by the rope the -year-old looked over the cliff and realised the danger they were in and instantly made the decision to climb down in an attempt to snatch both of the canoeists and hopefully make them safe to await rescue.
Although Alistair was putting himself in a dangerous position he felt that there was no other option to stop the situation from suddenly becoming worse and he managed to secure both of them but had to wait for further rescue resources before proceeding further.
Whilst the first kayaker was being hoisted up a large rock was dislodged from the cliff and hit Alistair on the shoulder and back area and even though he was in pain he insisted on carrying on with the rescue.
Some time afterwards when others had managed to descend to support him they realised he was in some discomfort and he was taken up the cliff where they realised his injury was worse than first thought. He was taken by ambulance to an RAF helicopter together with the first kayaker and flown to Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor, where he underwent an operation for his injuries and spent several weeks recovering.
On presenting the award to Alistair, Assistant Chief Constable Gareth Pritchard said, “Alistair displayed tremendous courage during the rescue. This is typical of the actions of our mountain and cave rescue volunteers in North Wales and across the country. I am extremely pleased to present Alistair with the Royal Humane Society award this evening as his actions are worthy of recognition.”
