Poor weather on Crib y Ddysgl made it difficult to reach the boy

Det Insp Gerwyn Lloyd said most people who called for rescue were lost, rather than injured.

He said research showed the majority of those rescued in north Wales were from the south and north west of England.

The boy, from the Liverpool area, suffered severe head injuries in the fall from a ridge on Friday.

He had been walking with his family and had been close to the summit of the Crib y Ddysgl ridge, about 3,000ft (900m) up when he fell.

A helicopter from RAF Valley on Anglesey was launched when the alarm was raised at 1255 BST, but bad weather and poor visibility made it difficult for them to reach the boy.

Members of Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team and the RAF Mountain Rescue Service were involved in the operation.

The boy had to be slowly carried down to an area where the helicopter could land.

We are trying to promote safety. We are trying to encourage people to come to the mountains and to do so safely Det Insp Gerwyn Lloyd

He was airlifted to hospital in Bangor at dusk, but North Wales Police later confirmed he had died.

A police spokeswoman said details would be passed to the coroner.

Det Insp Lloyd, from North Wales Police, said the force ran very basic navigational skills courses to help people plan for mountain walking.

"The Mountain Safe Initiative was brought about after the realisation that the majority of people that call for mountain rescue are not necessarily injured which means that they are actually lost or stuck," he said.

Map of rescue location in north Wales

"And if they are stuck it means that they got lost in the first place. It ultimately boils down to a lack of navigational skills.

"I think the outdoor leisure industry is growing and I suppose to use an analogy, we probably wouldn't take to the roads without having some form of driving lesson and I think people are realising that they do need some basic navigational awareness in order to be able to plan their safe journey.

"We are trying to promote safety. We are trying to encourage people to come to the mountains and to do so safely."

Det Insp Lloyd said people from outside the region tended to need rescuing more than those from north Wales because they could not put their days out in the mountains off so easily.

"We are lucky in that because we are local we can decide not to go because the weather isn't conducive to a good day out and we can put it off until the next week," he said.

"It is more likely they will go regardless because they have come up for the weekend."

The boy came from a party of walkers containing two families. One of the adults in the party is the boy's father.

It is understood there were two adults and two children walking there when the incident happened.

Crib y Ddysgl is a narrow ridge not far from the 3,560ft (1,085m) summit of Snowdon.