Friends of climber killed on Glyder Fawr say they will keep hiking

Mathew Belcher and Brendan Smith watched their best friend Jack Carne fall off Glyder Fawr, but they say the mountains will still be part of their lives. The two men, who were hiking with Carne near Llyn Ogwen in Eryri on February 4, 2023, have decided not to abandon the activity they shared with the 23-year-old builder from Barnsley, South Yorkshire.

Carne was making his way toward the summit of Glyder Fawr when a rock he was holding gave way, sending him down a steep section of the mountain. The inquest heard the drop was described as “almost vertical”, with later reports putting the fall at about 200ft, or 60m, and other accounts describing a plunge of roughly 600ft from a ridge. Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation later found his body a further 100m below the point where his friends had last seen him.

The group had started hiking during lockdown and were described at the inquest as experienced, well equipped walkers. Carne was also described as a “very fit young man”. Even so, rescue teams faced cloudy conditions, rockfall risk and ice on the mountain, and his body could not be brought down until the following day. Senior coroner John Gittins later recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Glyder Fawr, at about 1,001m, is the highest peak in the Glyderau and is known for its rough, scrambly ground. That terrain helped turn what may have seemed like a routine day out into a fatal accident, underscoring the narrow line between confidence and danger on some of north Wales’s most demanding routes.

The loss has also pulled in a wider circle of support around the Carne family. Richard Carne described his son as “an amazing lad in every way,” and a fundraiser set up in Jack’s memory went on to raise more than £8,000, with some appeals later taking the total beyond £9,000 for the family and for mountain rescue.

The Ogwen Valley team that found Carne is a volunteer organisation covering the Ogwen Valley and the Glyderau and Carneddau ranges. It is one of the busiest mountain rescue teams in the country, with more than 140 call-outs a year in its patch, and it works alongside North Wales Police, the Welsh Ambulance Service, Coastguard Rescue Helicopter crews and fire services through the regional volunteer network. For Belcher and Smith, keeping going into the hills is now part of carrying that loss, not forgetting it.