Reply to: Criticism after 'car park rescue' of Cairngorm walker

[BrilloPad]

It's also way easier to get lost and disorientated than we all like to think, too.

I feel like that in CUK. I did find the door out a while ago - but I somehow wandered back in a while ago and can't seem to find it again.

[tractor]

....

One of the advanced techniques in orienteering is run on a contour. Its pretty easy to determine if you are running up, down or level

That is exactly one of the methods coastal skippers use to navigate inshore through fog and darkness (using depth contours of course)

[SpontaneousOrder]

It's also way easier to get lost and disorientated than we all like to think, too.

Yeah, although he'll have done a lot of navigating in the dark on his own, and would have the bloody mindedness to just choose a bearing and keep going straight no matter what until he reached civilisation if he got lost. I reckon he probably pushed it too far and got hypothermic after which your brain is much less use.

[vwdan]

Wearing vest & shorts I know from experience its easy to think you're invincible and end up pushing your luck.

It's also way easier to get lost and disorientated than we all like to think, too.

[SpontaneousOrder]

Thing is that it is not inexperienced shandy drinking morris dancing folk that kill themselves in the hills, a royal marine died running in Glen Cova a few weeks back,

Wearing vest & shorts I know from experience its easy to think you're invincible and end up pushing your luck.

[EternalOptimist]

Powapoint, meeja (how to phone hack) and making ginger cake.

In geography, we even had to make sections from the contours on an OS map to determine whether an incline was convex or concave.

One of the advanced techniques in orienteering is run on a contour. Its pretty easy to determine if you are running up, down or level

[tractor]

...

We were taught how to read OS maps and orienteering in junior school, we even had days out map reading and drawing up our own maps. WTF do they teach these days?

Powapoint, meeja (how to phone hack) and making ginger cake.

In geography, we even had to make sections from the contours on an OS map to determine whether an incline was convex or concave.

[Paddy]

I was hiking in the lakes, just about to set off when a camper van pulled up.
It was a family out for a days walking.

The dad gets his map out, orients it with his compass, checks for visible land marks, then points and says - 'this way'

Then his 16-ish daughter gets out of the van, holding a similar map, sees that the destination is dead ahead and says - 'no, its this way'

When the dad points out that which ever way she faces , the destination would be dead ahead, she threw a hissy and insisted that her original direction was correct. she wouldn't be budged and she sqweemed and sqweemed.

We were taught how to read OS maps and orienteering in junior school, we even had days out map reading and drawing up our own maps. WTF do they teach these days?

[EternalOptimist]

I was hiking in the lakes, just about to set off when a camper van pulled up.
It was a family out for a days walking.

The dad gets his map out, orients it with his compass, checks for visible land marks, then points and says - 'this way'

Then his 16-ish daughter gets out of the van, holding a similar map, sees that the destination is dead ahead and says - 'no, its this way'

When the dad points out that which ever way she faces , the destination would be dead ahead, she threw a hissy and insisted that her original direction was correct. she wouldn't be budged and she sqweemed and sqweemed.

[tractor]

Every time I come down from Snowden I put in a tenner if they are there. I can't see us getting into trouble as we take the easy route - and only go up when the weather is good - but who can tell?

I remember on the walk in to the Glyders traverse one year at the bottom of the Glyder Slabs, I notice someone preparing to lead and struggling with his gear. He asked me if I could show him how to tie a figure of eight in his harness.

[tractor]

...

Orienteering skills are a tad shocking these days. <old man mode> back in my day it was a map and a compass and plan to be back before 17:00, or you're in do da. Folks spend all day climbing to the top expecting to get back down in 30 minutes.

And another thing! The number of times I see folks in the hills walking and looking at the views at the same time and once never at their feet. Doomed I tell ya.

Accidents rarely happen on the way up (aside from exposure and stuff but that is not an accident), almost always on the way down.

As a climber, when people were worried about falling, we used to say 'it's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the bottom!'

He was obviously lost in the first place, he should have been on Cairngormless.

[BrilloPad]

I dropped a fiver in the bucket of the local mountain rescue guys when I was at Sainsburys the other day. It's like insurance, you never know when you're gonna need your carcass hauling off a hill somewhere.

As regards that article, if he'd made it to the ski hut and was 400m from a car park (could have been a 400m drop though ) and had a phone, couldn't they have talked him down?

Langdale MRT can usually be relied upon to make criticism of rescued persons where they haven't prepared properly or are being unresonable. An example. They publish an incident report for each time they're called out which can make interesting reading.

Every time I come down from Snowden I put in a tenner if they are there. I can't see us getting into trouble as we take the easy route - and only go up when the weather is good - but who can tell?

[scooterscot]

Thing is that it is not inexperienced shandy drinking morris dancing folk that kill themselves in the hills, a royal marine died running in Glen Cova a few weeks back, an activates instructor nearly died as well out running in the cairngorms not long after

BBC News - Body found in search for missing Royal Marine
BBC News - Runner tells of relief at surviving sub-zero Cairngorms

These people should have known better but made really stupid errors.

Orienteering skills are a tad shocking these days. <old man mode> back in my day it was a map and a compass and plan to be back before 17:00, or you're in do da. Folks spend all day climbing to the top expecting to get back down in 30 minutes.

And another thing! The number of times I see folks in the hills walking and looking at the views at the same time and once never at their feet. Doomed I tell ya.

[minestrone]

Thing is that it is not inexperienced shandy drinking morris dancing folk that kill themselves in the hills, a royal marine died running in Glen Cova a few weeks back, an activates instructor nearly died as well out running in the cairngorms not long after

BBC News - Body found in search for missing Royal Marine
BBC News - Runner tells of relief at surviving sub-zero Cairngorms

These people should have known better but made really stupid errors.

[barrydidit]

I dropped a fiver in the bucket of the local mountain rescue guys when I was at Sainsburys the other day. It's like insurance, you never know when you're gonna need your carcass hauling off a hill somewhere.

As regards that article, if he'd made it to the ski hut and was 400m from a car park (could have been a 400m drop though ) and had a phone, couldn't they have talked him down?

Langdale MRT can usually be relied upon to make criticism of rescued persons where they haven't prepared properly or are being unresonable. An example. They publish an incident report for each time they're called out which can make interesting reading.