Walker Rescued from Cairngorm Car Park

[Border Reiver]

It's the silly season.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-30458551

[CharlesT]

It's the silly season.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-30458551

You do wonder if some people have any sense of shame or just any sense at all.

[Caberfeidh]

"He was well equipped but missing a key piece of equipment at a time close to the shortest day - a head torch."

I'd say he was missing another key piece of equipment : a brain!

I wonder if he had lots of certificates?

[Liebestoter]

Unfortunately you can't stop idiots from going into the mountains.

[peter tindal]

Send him a bill..........

[snowgoose]

If Willie Anderson says this was an arrogant **** who didn't deserve to be rescued, then I shall stand corrected, HOWEVER....in defence of this poor guy:-

He is from Brighton - you can't get much further south than that - he had obviously not realized how much earlier it becomes dark up here. Typically the BBC report is ambiguous - was he rescued IN the car park? or 400 metres AWAY from it? If it's dark and you have no head torch and you are 400 metres away from a car park, do you KNOW you are 400 metres away from a car park? Were there any cars in the car park??? That mountain ski centre looks pretty remote to me, so in the absence of any cars or other life forms, and assuming the guy was knackered, possibly disorientated and had possibly been very, very scared I can understand why he might feel the need to dial 999. It is all very well for all you hardened mountaineers to criticise, but if somebody is possibly a newcomer, and lacking in enough experience even to know WHAT they NEED to know and what they should or should not be doing then it must be very easy indeed to get it wrong. I hope he has learned from this and that it does not put him off. And I also hope that guy who wants to do winter wild camping in the Lake District is all right, because judging by the kind and extent of the things he was asking, he should maybe not be doing it at all.

[snowgoose]

If Willie Anderson says this was an arrogant idiot who didn't deserve to be rescued, then I shall stand corrected, HOWEVER....in defence of this poor guy:-

He is from Brighton - you can't get much further south than that - he had obviously not realized how much earlier it becomes dark up here. Typically the BBC report is ambiguous - was he rescued IN the car park? or 400 metres AWAY from it? If it's dark and you have no head torch and you are 400 metres away from a car park, do you KNOW you are 400 metres away from a car park? Were there any cars in the car park??? That mountain ski centre looks pretty remote to me, so in the absence of any cars or other life forms, and assuming the guy was knackered, possibly disorientated and had possibly been very, very scared I can understand why he might feel the need to dial 999. It is all very well for all you hardened mountaineers to criticise, but if somebody is possibly a newcomer, and lacking in enough experience even to know WHAT they NEED to know and what they should or should not be doing then it must be very easy indeed to get it wrong. I hope he has learned from this and that it does not put him off. And I also hope that guy who wants to do winter wild camping in the Lake District is all right, because judging by the kind and extent of the things he was asking, he should maybe not be doing it at all.

[Border Reiver]

If Willie Anderson says this was an arrogant idiot who didn't deserve to be rescued, then I shall stand corrected, HOWEVER....in defence of this poor guy:-

He is from Brighton - you can't get much further south than that - he had obviously not realized how much earlier it becomes dark up here. Typically the BBC report is ambiguous - was he rescued IN the car park? or 400 metres AWAY from it? If it's dark and you have no head torch and you are 400 metres away from a car park, do you KNOW you are 400 metres away from a car park? Were there any cars in the car park??? That mountain ski centre looks pretty remote to me, so in the absence of any cars or other life forms, and assuming the guy was knackered, possibly disorientated and had possibly been very, very scared I can understand why he might feel the need to dial 999. It is all very well for all you hardened mountaineers to criticise, but if somebody is possibly a newcomer, and lacking in enough experience even to know WHAT they NEED to know and what they should or should not be doing then it must be very easy indeed to get it wrong. I hope he has learned from this and that it does not put him off. And I also hope that guy who wants to do winter wild camping in the Lake District is all right, because judging by the kind and extent of the things he was asking, he should maybe not be doing it at all.

Your comments about the situation this guy found himself in are probably spot on. However, most people on these forums are not "hardened mountaineers", but more likely people who are passionate about the outdoors and walking in particular. Wherever we come from we should prepare for a walk in this country as thoroughly as we would prepare for a walk in say, the Alps. Where are we going? How high? check route! time estimated! have a plan B! check weather forecast! have we got the correct equipment? when does it get dark? leave a route card! etc..etc.... all things that every sensible hill walker will consider. Not knowing where you are when in the mountains is a major thing. Navigation skills are essential, especially in poor conditions, but having a map and compass is useless if you cannot see either because you have no torch and spare batteries.
I appreciate how scared the guy must have been, but he should never have even considered setting off with 100mph winds likely.........I would have stayed at home. As you say, hopefully he will have learned and will walk with someone experienced for a while.

[Slogger]

I'm afraid that he fits the remit of some people who end up in trouble in the Scottish hills in Winter every year, in that they travel so far from the South to do something, that the weather no matter how bad is not going to stop them. It's not like they can simply come back when the weather improves. This may be the only chance they get each year to 'do' Scotland and unfortunately some of these people meet with disaster and only get to travel back down to where they live in a coffin.
Dave

[Sgurr]

Hillwalking around Brighton is not very exciting. Have just been down to finish off Section 42 in Relative Hills of Britain. Don't think we walked more than 2 miles or ascended more than 200 feet (yes, feet, not metres) from the car park on any of them. But if you do the non-bagging routes, I'm sure there are ways of keeping fit down there. But he probably wanted ADVENTURE, not a work-out. And to think when husband first qualified he had his pick between Brighton and Scotland. Life could so well have been entirely different. All of us who live up here are very lucky in that we don't have to go out if it is awful. Slogger is spot on when he says travelers from the south sometimes feel they have to make the most of their precious and expensive time booked up north.

[WalkingDutchman]

Slogger is spot on when he says travelers from the south sometimes feel they have to make the most of their precious and expensive time booked up north.

That may be true, but this guy should have had the common sense not to do that. Since I live in the Netherlands, and there basically is NO hillwalking here, I come up to the Highlands (and love doing that) to walk for a week or so in the hills. However: If the weather starts to become so bad that I no longer feel comfortable staying out there, I WILL walk away and find shelter. Even if that means that my flight and other travel costs are basically down the drain. I know that I will do so because it has happened to me and I have broken of a trip after two days (cost me fortune because I couldn't change my flight ticket so had to stay in hotels, B&B's and stuff because it was too bad to camp. still managed to get some short walks in here and there, but basically the goal of my trip, a week in the Fisherfields, was ruined. And I could not come back and try again until almost a year later - but at least I live to tell the tale).

So yes, the guy might have felt absolutely terrified, was probably knackered, and saw no alternative than to call 999, but he never should have been up there in the first place. Period. What's more important to you (and your loved ones): a few hours on the hills or your life?

I say send him the bill for an MRT callout. Sorry, but stupidity like this sort of aggravates me, not because he's putting his own life in danger but he is unnecessarily endangering the lives of the MRT - and that is a very serious offence to me.

[Caberfeidh]

Did he even have a car? If he didn't then the car park is no sanctuary, and it was getting dark with gales and blizzard conditions. OK he was daft going in those conditions, but maybe it wasn't so bad when he set off? Or maybe he really is just glaikit.

Be Prepared

[rgf101]

Regarding "sending them a bill" - has any MRT team actually called for that to be possible?

[CharlesT]

It is a long way from here in the South but that's no excuse for behaving unwisely. Clearly we don't know the full story but it is unusual for the MRT to comment so they must have felt somewhat aggrieved at the call-out.

More than once I have abandonned ascents due to bad conditions or time delays. It is annoying when you've travelled far but it goes with the territory. There is no excuse for endangering yourself and maybe others when it is avoidable.

[NickyRannoch]

Regarding "sending them a bill" - has any MRT team actually called for that to be possible?

No.

Quite the reverse in fact.

It just provides a convenient sound bite for people to show everyone else how outraged they are with the unwritten insinuation that they would never be so foolish as to get into similar trouble.