Tryfan via the North Ridge remains, to this day, one of my favourite UK scrambles.
The combination of scenery, fun scrambling and a dramatic summit make this a really appealing mountain hike for seasoned hikers and even beginners attracted by things they’ve seen online.
But despite the nature of the mountain – one requiring scrambling almost from start to finish on the North Ridge, Tryfan attracts thousands of visitors, some of whom have very little mountain experience. At the time of writing, there are over 95,000 Instagram posts with the hashtag #tryfan.
It’s a similar story over on Tiktok. And I’m not criticising that. I myself have a hiking Tiktok channel and use the platform to find inspiration.
But we’ll touch here on the impact of social media on the danger on Tryfan.
How Dangerous is Tryfan?
The most objective way to assess how dangerous Tryfan is, is by looking at Mountain Rescue call out data.
Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue, the team whose patch Tryfan falls in, data shows that 41 of the 131 incidents they have attended between 1st January and 31st August 2025, involved Tryfan.
In other words, almost a third of their callouts are on this mountain.
It keeps Mountain Rescue insanely busy.
The callouts range from limb injuries, to crag fast hikers and, sadly, falls and fatalities.
Tryfan Deaths
There were two fatalities in 2024 and we’ve already seen a fatality in 2025, when an experienced female hiker fell from the mountain in February.
Social Media and Tryfan
Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Chairman, Chris Lloyd, is on record discussing the impact of social media on visits to potentially dangerous mountains like Tryfan.
He said:
“I think things have changes, certainly all mountain rescue teams have noticed a big difference since [Covid] lockdown.
I think one of the things is social media. People are doing podcasts and people have seen them and getting the idea they can go up there.
But they haven’t seen how that original filmer was equipped and they haven’t seen how experienced he was.
We are getting a number of people going up getting into difficulties because they aren’t suitably equipped or experienced.”
What Makes Tryfan so Dangerous?
Based on my own experience of Tryfan (which I admit is one of my favourite hikes to date), I think navigation can be troublesome on Tryfan.
It’s a scramble up the North Ridge from start to finish and it’s fairly easy to end up in very difficult terrain. Lots of crag fast hikers end up in places where they feel they cannot get up nor down and need help.
The nature of the terrain also means falls are likelier.
Each time I’ve been on Tryfan the weather has been good, so the rock has been dry. But the changeable conditions in North Wales means you can easily find yourself on this mountain in mist, rain or heavy winds. Poor weather can easily turn a “straightforward grade 1 scramble” into a significantly more complex undertaking.
I think the fact that the mountain looks so spectacular draws people in too. It’s so easily accessible from the roadside that this probably adds to the appeal.
Personally, I had done quite a lot of scrambling before working up to Tryfan and I was delighted I had. For a new hiker experiencing a walk up the mountain, Tryfan could potentially be an unpleasant surprise.
How can we make it less dangerous?
There’s an element of risk with mountain hiking no matter what we do.
But personally, for me, I would say that those of us posting content about mountains have a responsibility to highlight the risks. I include myself in this. I do try to point out the potential dangers on mountains but I feel anyone writing or posting video content about hikes should be sure they’ve been clear about the risks.
Pretty social media videos without context, information about the creator’s experience and so forth, could lull content consumers into believing a mountain is a walk in the park when it’s actually a full on scramble up a ridge.
Of course, hikers and those venturing into the hills have some responsibility for themselves – ensuring sensible weather checks, heading out in decent conditions and being equipped. But even with all the preparations in the world, even the most experienced hiker can come a cropper on a mountain like Tryfan.
It’s not possible to remove all the risk from this sort of activity and maybe that’s why some of us like it so much.
But perhaps with the good work Mountain Rescue is doing to publicise the dangers (the TV show, “SOS Extreme Rescues” is an exceptional example of this) people will understand that some mountains aren’t just “turn up in your trainers and wander up and hope.”
Regardless, a moment’s appreciate for the utterly epic work the Mountain Rescue organisations up and down the country do.
