I agree the breach of lockdown is ridiculous and is the cause of the incident. Rightly they have been fined and I am sure given a suitable hard time for this.
I also agree that if they had not travelled, this would not have been an incident needing MRT.
They could easily have not needed help but travelling to a remote area, camping at altitude in poor weather in winter and when one of the campers had a pre-existing health issue was not the best decision.
I too have travelled to a hill, in a remote area, and in bad weather, plus I have a health condition. I am even known to ride bikes, canoe on white water and ski on occasion - all much higher risk activities - still in remote areas, up hills and in all weathers.
At what point are we making the hills the preserve of the healthy, elite mountain-dweller, gate kept by a committee approving who can go out today and on what hills, only in approved waterproofs of course?
The volunteer MRT rescue and assistance is without judgement, fear or favour. Long may that stance be the case.
The MRT also know and accept the risks. This isn't the first, nor will it be the last, rescuer who is injured or killed on the hill while volunteering to rescue others.
Every year we have ridiculous stories of misadventure, poor judgement, lack of knowledge and downright irresponsibility leading to a rescue. This is not a new or unique thing just because we are in a viral pandemic.
Please step forward if you have never made a bad call, had a close escape or had to call MRT for assistance? I have called them - and have made many, many bad calls.
Those that need to be are fined - up here it is everything from wasting police time through to culpable and reckless conduct. When my friend has his mountain biking accident all of us were cautioned and interviewed by the police as we thought it was going to be a fatality. The police have powers here.
We need to be careful - there is precedent last week that being outdoors, up a hill, in bad weather can lead to prosecution (and yet the lockdown breach is played down...). See this for a worrying read:
http://parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2021/02/06/the-criminalisation-of-outdoor-recreation-during-the-covid-crisis/ Having also been involved in a few other incidents through my career in outdoor learning I have also learned to not totally believe everything in the media. I was involved in an incident where the irresponsible group who needed rescue were reported as being the saviours of two others - almost the direct opposite of the situation - and with no mention of the real rescuers from local outdoor centre.
I will repeat - they should not have been there due to lockdown.
But when they were, and needed help, we should be supporting of MRT stepping up and doing what they do. Next time it might be me.