This weeks Brecon and Radnor reports on the search last Tuesday for two men who were lost in 'foul weather' on Pen y Fan, the highest mountain in Southern Britain.
The weather really was not that bad, the guys had no map, no waterproofs and after walking around for eight hours called in the Mountain Rescue who warmed them and walked them off the hill.
These guys intend to come back and had the audacity to claim that the walk up Pen y Fan was training for Mount Kilimanjaro. They involved 40 rescuers and a police helicopter.
I say that they should be billed for the rescue. I am fed up with complete idiots out on the hill. Fathers that have the best walking waterproofs but throw a towel over their eleven year old son at the top of a mountain when it starts raining, mother and daughters who ask me are they at the top of Pen y Fan when they are at the top of Fan Fawr, poorly equipped and unskilled people in hazardous situations.
Stop the walking magazines 'sexing up' mountaineering, stop the promotion of honey pot routes, issue good information on courses and kit and let the idiots know that they will be billed if it is proven that they set off for a walk unprepared. Accidents do happen but would you be insured if you drove a car with no brakes. Walking up a British mountain in the winter with NO kit or experience is a similar act and should be treated as such.
There is no excuse for this. All know that boots and waterproofs and a map are important. I met a guy once that had been using a compass for a few year and wondered why he kept getting lost. It had reversed polarity! I kid you not.
The B and R should have slated the guys but reported the event as if it had been a jolly mistake. Oh well. Thats local reporting for you!
Comments