Inquest: 999 call from hikers who died on Snowdonia ridge not escalated correctly

Two friends who died on a mountain ridge during extreme winter conditions tried calling 999 but the alert was not escalated "as it should have been", according to a police expert at an inquest.

The bodies of Eddie Hill, 20, and Jayden Long, 19, both from Dereham, Norfolk, were found by a mountain rescue team in Eryri, also known as Snowdonia, on 19 February.

They died on Crib y Ddysgl, a ridge that peaks at 1,065m (3,494ft), less than a mile north of Yr Wyddfa's summit and linking it to the notoriously narrow ridge of Crib Goch.

The mountain rescue team said it did not have enough information about the location or nature of the 999 call to act immediately.

Philip Benbow, lead co-ordinator of Llanberis Mountain Rescue team told Gwynedd Coroner's Court in Caernarfon he had been alerted by North Wales Police on the evening of 18 February to an abandoned 999 call made three hours earlier from a male who was thought to be on Crib y Ddysgl.

The call was later identified as coming from Long's mobile phone.

After further enquiries, including contact with family members, mountain rescue teams and the coastguard helicopter searched the last known position of the two men but found no trace.

A decision was made to continue the search at first light.

A search and rescue dog team joined the mountain rescue teams for the search on the morning of 19 February.

At 10:46 two members of the team spotted a possible trail in the snow, and a drone and the coastguard helicopter were sent to the location.

The men's bodies were found and their deaths confirmed.