A woman has been taken to hospital with head injuries following a seven-hour rescue operation off Cader Idris.

The woman, from Anglesey, slipped and hit her head whilst crossing the summit plateau between the Pen y Gader and Mynydd Moel peaks.

She was bleeding and both the casualty and her partner were anxious, cold and wet.

Aberdyfi Search and Rescue Team received a call to help the couple just after 1pm on Saturday, and volunteers went up the mountain to perform a rescue.

However, it would take more than an hour to reach the injured woman so the Coastguard Helicopter was called to assist.

The aircraft took off, but poor weather covered the mountains in cloud and it was forced to turn back.

Having reached the injured woman on foot, Aberdyfi Search and Rescue put the casualty on a stretcher and tried to keep her warm.

It was a long and difficult stretcher-carry down to Minffordd and, as the stretcher party started to descend the main slope of Mynydd Moel, weather conditions improved and the helicopter was requested again.

This time it was able to reach the mountain and landed nearby, giving rescuers the chance to move a little further down the mountain, before winching the casualty aboard.

The injured woman was flown to Ysbyty Gwynedd for further assessment and treatment.

A total of 32 Aberdyfi volunteers were involved in the seven-hour rescue operation.

Everyone was safely off the hill by 8pm.

Team spokesperson Graham O’Hanlon said: "Without the repeated attempts in difficult conditions by the helicopter to assist this rescue, the team faced a long and very challenging carry down the mountain in the dark.

“As it was, rescuers had been attending this incident for seven hours, and without the air-lift it would have continued for a fair number more."