Hill walking stupidity

[Eyebrows of Doom]

Absolute madness, there has to be some kind fine for this level of stupidly.

- Pay the full cost of the rescue
- A month in jail
- Pay for the privilege of your 4 week stay

Or some kind of mandatory hill walking insurance, say £10 a year, agree that you have map reading experience and can work a compass, and that you will have adequate clothing with you, failing to do this on been rescued gets you the three pointers above.

Anyone have any other ideas?

 

[Joshua Slocum]

Some people are definitely lacking in intelligence and forward thinking

 

[smartascarrots]

Anyone have any other ideas?

Not bothering rescuing them?

 

[ThelmatheBelmer]

Not bothering rescuing them?

Couldn't do that. After a couple of months, every waterway in the country would be clogged with object lessons.

 

[Ravers]

Happens every fucking year.

Had a variety of different groups staying at the pub over the years who’ve been escorted off Helvellyn dressed in jeans and trainers.

There was a good one a few years back where a group of orthodox Jewish kids went on a youth club trip up Blencathra or something dressed in traditional garb.

Their youth club leader decided it all got a bit much when the weather turned and fucked off saving himself while leaving all the kids up there.

Mountains and the sea are two places that fuckwits should not be allowed to visit unsupervised.

 

[SPROCKET321]

it's the risk averse culture of modern youth, everything including the Cairngorms must be controlled by health and safety, so what have they got to fear, someone will come to their rescue.

 

[Dark_Nit]

Nothing new there.
I had the same issues with a university walking group I was involved with in the late 80s.

At one stage I refused to lead a group up and over Featherbed Top for a 12 miler on a day with heavy showers forecast as the footwear included one pair of converse trainers, one pair of nylon (non-waterproof) trainers and a pair of pink fashion boots (I sh!t you not).

At least half of the group had no waterproofs and pretty much the same bunch had not thought to bring any food or drink or a map or compass.

Needless to say, I refused point blank to take the idiots in my group.

 

[Jack_Prior]

Very true @Ravers ; I'd bet that in most coastal areas with coastal paths, for every sensibly dressed and prepared walker there is a pensioner in sandals or a bunch of dickheads coming back from the pub in the dark. Or a clueless townie with a big OS map and an iphone, still fecking lost. Kidding you not, on a coastal path a few years back there was a family with a pushchair coming the other way. Some, or most, don't consider what happens when it pelts down, they break a limb or have a medical emergency, or they get lost or they're still on the path in the dark. And there's no phone signal.

 

[CivvyPete]

One of the problems is that so many people live such indoor lives, never walking further than from car to the shop, so they fail to realise the potential impact of adverse weather. Add to that a dose of "it was sunny when we set off" - despite the ease of getting high quality local forecasts on a phone, and a blind trust in phones for navigation, and you've a recipe for lots of near misses and a fair few disasters.

 

[Dark_Nit]

Weather in places like the Lake District can change very rapidly. Often you can't see the weather coming because there is a bl**dy great mountain in the way which can hide an incoming weather front. Even in my YHA days there used to be muppets who didn't check the weather before heading off up to Grisedale Tarn or Helvellyn and then wondered why they were soaked before lunch time.

 

[Pisseduppardre]

We have had a few drown near me over recent years. The local estuary has a huge tidal range and the lovely golden sands can be very, very nasty if you go wandering away from the established beaches. The local RNLI crew are out a fair bit rescuing pillocks people cut of by the incoming water, they are not always in time.....

This is despite bloody great notices all over the local beaches and coastal path warning of the danger. It is mainly holiday makers that get caught out as they don't seem to think that the warnings apply to them.

One of the RNLI crew remarked to me that when rescued the first thing that they normally say starts with the words "We only....." or "I just...." Sadly the graveyards of the world are full of people whose demise was proceed by these two statements.

While I am not really in favour of to much law making, I do think that we need a Being Bloody-Stupid Act. The fines resulting from prosecuting idiots (or their families in the case of a fatal event) would go a long way towards paying the costs of running rescue operations.

 

[CutLunchCommando]

What was it in Rab C Nesbitt?

"Govan climbing gear....a pack of fags and a sarcastic expression."

 

[AsterixTG]

Mountain Rescue here - called out to search for a couple of young guys who'd gone up to Pen Y Fan at midnight and got lost on the way back - early March, they had no kit, wearing these knitted trainers and joggers. They were soaked through, very cold and very lost - we were called out around 4am, found them about 6ish.

This isn't anything special really, but what made me laugh is that one of them had lost one of his crutches while hobbling around lost...

 

[lokiuk]

I saw someone starting up Crib Goch holding a iPad on a selfie stick and wearing shorts and flip flops

Even stranger no reports in the local news that day of someone falling off Snowdon, so they were lucky enough to get away with it

 

[Wightsparker]

You bloody fascists. WHY were there no warning signs about possible weather changes?
WHY shouldn't people enjoy their human rights?
And WHAT is wrong with pensioners wearing sandals? To even think that that is wrong is verging on the homophobic.
If the hills are so dangerous the Government should be doing something about them.

 

[Electromagnetic]

What was it in Rab C Nesbitt?

"Govan climbing gear....a pack of fags and a sarcastic expression."

This one?

 

[endure]

Just shoot the fuckers and have done with it...

 

[Sam The Bam]

These are the sort of folks that are allergic to say peanuts but still require a warning labels on the bags of peanuts stating this packets contains peanuts.

Those labels should be removed and nature allowed to take it's course

 

[kelvin_273]

Oy Vey

 

[StBob072]

Happens every ******* year.

Had a variety of different groups staying at the pub over the years who’ve been escorted off Helvellyn dressed in jeans and trainers.

There was a good one a few years back where a group of orthodox Jewish kids went on a youth club trip up Blencathra or something dressed in traditional garb.

Their youth club leader decided it all got a bit much when the weather turned and fucked off saving himself while leaving all the kids up there.

Mountains and the sea are two places that fuckwits should not be allowed to visit unsupervised.

Yep we were trying to get up to pillar rock via black sail pass a few years back. After about an hour of walking the weather closed in and we decided we'd be better off at the wasdale head Inn. But not before we'd encountered a party of little Japanese tourists clambering about wearing ballet pumps.