A campsite owner in the Ogwen Valley had first raised the alarm when a man from Rochdale failed to remove his tent and was reported missing.

Walkers descending Tryfan on Saturday evening found a rucksack near the base of North Gully in the Heather Terrace area and alerted police.

On Sunday morning members of the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Team searched the gully but could not find the missing walker.

The team's spokesman Chris Lloyd said the rucksack was badly damaged and had 'obviously' fallen some distance.

"Eight of us searched the North Gully on Tryfan early on Sunday morning, four from below and four from the top," said Mr Lloyd.

"We did find some equipment in the gully but we couldn't say it was from the missing walker.

"We were a bit stumped because we thought we had found a debris trail which would have led us to the casualty," he said.

Dozens of other team members were called in to assist with a wider search around the base of the gully.

Police and RAF helicopters were also called but were hampered by strong winds and poor visibility.

At 1pm after five hours of searching the dense heather and mixed boulder fields the body of a man in his late fifties was found.

"One of the team members followed the gully line down and found him 150-200 feet below Heather Terrace," said Mr Lloyd, who said it looked like a tragic accident.

"It was difficult to carry him out because of the heather and boulders," he said.

Police said they can't formerly identify the man until his family had been informed of the tragedy.

Investigations are continuing into the accident and a post mortem is to be carried out.