A FORMER Powys headteacher has been reunited with the man he helped rescue off Wales’ tallest peak nearly 60 years ago – on the same day another climber died.
When Bryn Davies was just 18 and in his first year of college, he helped rescue injured climber Terry Taylor off Snowdon (yr Wyddfa).
Terry and his unnamed friend had been climbing the Clogwyn Du'r Arddu cliffs, while Bryn, now 77, and three of his friends had been to the summit.
The date was October 10, 1965. Last Thursday, October 10, the 59th anniversary of the fateful day he helped rescue one man off Snowdon and carry a corpse off it, Bryn and Terry met for just the second time.
“It’s a date you don’t forget,” said Bryn, speaking last Friday from Llanwrtyd Wells, where he lives, having grown up in North Wales.
“It was my first term at college, in Bangor, and I went with the walking club to do the Snowdon horseshoe.
“We’d arrived at the summit and just starting our packed lunch when someone came running up saying there’d been an accident. Two climbers had fallen; they asked if anyone knew first aid.
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“Me and Wynford Davies (the two have been lifelong friends, having started primary school together on the same day), we’d been in the British Red Cross since we were 12.
“So, we went down with Ian McCloud, Chris Rayner and two others."
Wynford and Chris rushed to Terry, while Bryn and Ian quickly realised his friend was dead.
“We arrived and there were two climbers, there were no signs of life in the one, we did all the checks and were certain he was dead,” added Bryn.
“The other climber was Terry Taylor, we immobilised him with what we had. We only had coats so we made him as comfortable as possible until mountain rescue arrived. From there, he was taken to hospital in Bangor.
“Some mountain rescue members stayed behind and with ropes they made a stretcher and we carried the dead climber back down to Llanberis.”
Off the mountain and in shock, the foursome completely forgot about getting back to college. The last bus had left, so another student eventually came to get them.
“And basically, that was it… until last year,” revealed Bryn.
“There was a follow-up article in a magazine, which Chris read,” said Bryn.
“In it, Terry spoke about the 1965 accident and how no-one knew who the four students were, he had no way of thanking them.”
There were contact details at the bottom, Chris enquired and met up with Terry.
“This year, on the 59th anniversary, Chris arranged to meet Terry in Llanberis and he contacted me.
“Three of us went up (Ian couldn’t make it), although Terry didn’t know anything about it.
“We spent about an hour-and-a-half with Terry. There were tears.
“His first words were ‘I do apologise it’s taken 59 years for me to say this but I thank you for all the assistance you gave me on that day’. It was a very emotional day.
“I asked him of his recollections and he said he remembers looking up at his partner who was in mid-air, falling, and his immediate thought was ‘I’m going to die here today’.
“From what I remember he broke both ankles, had fractures on his legs, he had broken ribs and a broken collar bone.”
Bryn and Chris’ paths crossed again shortly after college, and they swapped numbers after a chance encounter again, while out walking in Mid Wales, more recently.
Were it not for that, or Chris reading the article, Terry might never have had the chance to thank the anonymous college students.
“Out of something so tragic, something heartwarming has come out of it,” says Bryn.
“It was the first dead body I’d seen but I didn’t have any nightmares, we just sort of put our training into practice and put it behind us. We were only too glad to help.
“It’s nearly 60 years ago but the memories of that day have lived with me all this time.”
Bryn settled in Powys after getting a job going round schools in Garth, Llangammarch, Beulah and Llanwrtyd, teaching Welsh as a second language.
He was headteacher at Ysgol Dolafon in Llanwrtyd for 28 years before retiring in 2002, but remained in education until he was 70.
Bryn still loves walking and hiking and has completed the full Man v Horse marathon eight times, as well as the relay on eight occasions, including seven years ago, when he was 70.
This week he is walking from Barmouth to Machynlleth, in his quest to complete the entire Wales coastal path.
“The plan is to cross into Chepstow, and the finish line, on January 18, 2027, on my 80th birthday,” said Bryn.
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