Kitty Harrison, a trainee dental nurse, found herself in a perilous situation when she slipped on a mountain in Snowdonia while scattering her father’s ashes. She was on the descent of Tryfan, one of the highest mountains in Wales, when she lost her footing and fell. Despite not knowing how far she had fallen, she found herself clinging to a small ledge, precariously perched above a 300ft drop for over three hours. The rescue mission saw over 12 mountain rescue volunteers and a helicopter come to her aid, with the rescue team needing to use Kitty’s mobile phone GPS to pinpoint her location on Tryfan’s steep, rocky side.
With the rugged terrain and strong winds on Tryfan making it too difficult to bring the helicopter down, rescue volunteers had to abseil down to Kitty to rescue her. One of the rescuers, Robin Woodward of the Ogwen Mountain Rescue group, described Kitty as being “in quite a scary place for some time” and stressed that “it wouldn’t have turned out well for her if she’d slipped further down”. In total, the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue group dealt with 178 incidents in 2022, with 40% of the incidents occurring on Tryfan.
Despite the terrifying ordeal, Kitty remained in high spirits, joking “please don’t put my bum on telly, my mum would have killed me”. The feat was part of the BBC’s SOS: Extreme Rescues programme, which follows the UK’s busiest rescue teams where they try to save lives in the mountains, on the coast, and in the forests of Snowdonia.
Tryfan also had sentimental meaning for Kitty, as she was fulfilling her father Steve Parry’s wish to have his ashes scattered on his favourite mountain with the best views. Steve was a wildlife photographer and avid outdoor enthusiast who would frequently take his family on holidays to North Wales, with Tottenham Hotspur football and traditional sweet shops being some of his daughter’s favourite pastimes with him. Kitty described the summit meeting as a sense of fulfilment, only for things to turn perilous during the descent.
Despite suffering a few bumps and bruises, Kitty came out of the situation with no serious injuries. The incident served as a reminder of the rugged, immensely beautiful, yet challenging nature of the mountain that Kitty’s father affectionately called “the little mountain that bites back
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