Jubilee Beacon

Tomorrow evening members of the Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team & SARDA Wales will join a group of soldiers who have just returned from the Everest region to ascend to the summit of Snowdon in support of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Celebrations.

Soldiers representing the charity ‘Walking with the Wounded’  and will light a beacon on the summit of  Yr Wyddfa, (Snowdon) at 1085 meters the highest point in Wales and the fabled home of Rhita Gawr . This is one of four beacons lit on the summits of the highest national peaks in Britain, Snowdon’s beacon will be lit at 22:29.

This joint venture is in support of the Trust set up by the Princes Harry, who is the Patron of the ‘Walking with the Wounded’ campaign and Prince  William, who is patron of the Mountain Rescue Council for England and Wales. Members of the Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team, together with dogs and handlers from SARDA (Wales) will accompany the soldiers and escort them from Pen y Pass walking along the PyG Track to the summit and descend along the path to Llanberis. This therefore, is a brilliant example of joint participation between the charities.

The soldiers are to be congratulated for their efforts on Everest, which was sadly curtailed because of bad weather and dangerous snow conditions. However, their effort with the ‘8848’ fundraising event is to be applauded as it aims to turn the height of Everest in meters into pounds. The historical links between the conquest of Everest in 1953 and Snowdon are  well documented at Pen Y Gwryd, the adopted home of the first successful ascent of Everest.

The Llanberis Team will represent all of the Welsh mountain rescue teams and proudly wave the flag on their behalf on the summit. The ‘Walking with the Wounded’ participants have been awarded the honour of lighting the beacon on the summit.  However, once the official beacon has been lit it is the Teams intention to light the night sky by firing some para-flares in support of the occasion once the beacon celebrations have ended. The intention is to draw attention to the charity work of all the Welsh mountain rescue teams so that the Welsh Dragon will breath flames once again in support of the celebratory events.