Social media has long been a search engine for thrill seekers planning out their next adventure off the beaten track.
But mountain rescue teams say some quests for picture perfect views are in fact putting lives at risk.
Call-outs for those under-25 have risen by 90% over the last five years, driven by TikTok and Instagram videos depicting “secret” beauty spots that are often remote and dangerous.
In one case, highlighted by BBC Wales’ SOS Extreme Rescues, a young couple used TikTok videos to research a trip to part of a north Wales world heritage site.
But it ended with Nathaniel and Charlie from Leeds “hanging on for dear life” – stranded high in a quarry on a crumbling cliff, with a storm blowing in.
“We use social media to see all these amazing places, and then we figure out how we are going to get to them,” said delivery driver Nathaniel, who met trainee nurse Charlie at the hospital where they both work.
“We wake up and say ‘Oh, we’re going here’. It’s just spontaneous all the time,” added Charlie.
They had headed out to Eryri National Park for a fresh adventure with two other friends, but Charlie was still unaware of the final destination.
“Nathaniel said they had something planned for us. They wouldn’t show us the TikTok, so it was a complete surprise,” said Charlie.
The surprise was hidden deep in the historic Dinorwig Quarry, in Gwynedd – which was the world’s second largest slate quarry when it was opened more than 200 years ago.
It is a maze of paths, tunnels and mines, all set on staggered gigantic terraces cut into the mountainside overlooking Llanberis on the edge of the national park.
It closed in 1969, and was named as part of a new Unesco World Heritage Site in 2021.
Most of the quarry is privately owned and officially off limits, with no public access.
It is dotted with warning signs, fences and locked gates.
But that has not stopped it becoming a magnet for adventurers, especially rock climbers.
Those well equipped and experienced sports enthusiasts have been generally tolerated in the quarry.
However, since the explosion in social media, the location has also been attracting thousands of less experienced visitors, often unaware of the dangers hiding in the old workings and mountains of slate debris.
Only recently, a massive rock slide in the quarry was captured on camera, as thousands of tonnes of slate rock peeled away from one of the faces on a terrace near to where Nathaniel and Charlie were headed.
“When we got there, there was like a lagoon, blue, crystal clear water. We saw loads of caves, and then we actually found the surprise, a hidden waterfall,” explained Charlie.
“It was so pretty.”
Nathaniel said they had climbed quite high into the quarry and were enjoying the day.
“Then, as we were getting down, that’s when everything went really bad,” he said.
“Everything that we were standing on was just crumbling away.
“I was like ‘Charlie, I can’t think of a way down, without one of us getting seriously injured’.”
While their two friends in the group did find a way out, Nathaniel and Charlie found themselves completely stranded.
They were left with only one option – to dial 999 and ask for help.
It led to the UK’s busiest mountain rescue team being called out to save them.
Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team tops the league for all call outs across Wales and England, with well over 300 rescue “shouts” in 2024.
“There was definitely the potential for them to injure themselves if they’d tried to move from where they were,” said team member Dave Murray.
Add to that a named storm was now making itself felt, the couple’s predicament was getting worse by the minute.
“We had 70mph winds. Bits of slate flicking up. We got little cuts on us from the wind blowing it at our faces,” said Nathaniel.
“We were in such an open area, it was freezing. Obviously scared – and we were holding on for dear life,” added Charlie.
But there was relief when the rescue team finally reached them, and used a series of rope relays to safely get them off the quarry cliff face.
“I’ve constantly got it on my head that I nearly killed my best friend,” said Nathaniel.
“I couldn’t find the words to apologise.”
According to Mountain Rescue England and Wales, the body overseeing rescue teams across the two nations, there has been an alarming leap in the number of call-outs for younger people.
In 2019, 166 calls involved those between the ages of 18 and 24.
Fast forward five years, and that figure stands at 314 – a 90% increase.
It has led mountain rescue teams to make repeated warnings about following social media posts, as they face the pressure to deal with mounting calls for help.
“I’ve seen videos of people who make it look easy. But somebody seeing that video – for them – it might be well beyond their limits,” said Llanberis Mountain Rescue’s Dave Murray, as in Nathaniel and Charlie’s case.
