And so it continues

A 55-YEAR-OLD man, who had planned to spend two days camping on Snowdon and said: “I climbed the Watkin Path to an old quarry (at Bwlch Cwn Llan) with my brother on Monday and the weather was fantastically clear. I could see the Wicklow mountains in Ireland and the Preseli hills in Pembrokeshire. He returned down as planned before dusk and I camped out alone. I expected bad weather but it was much worse than forecast with 65 mile an hour winds and temperatures down to minus 10. I spent the day bedded down in the tent. By the time the weather cleared I had no energy to carry wet camping gear in a rucksack all the way down the hillside so I called for help," is clearly in the running for this year's Darwin awards.

Now, who would have thought that Snowdon would have had bad weather this past week? Given that this December is likely to be the coldest we've had for years, the highest snowfall and the worst ice conditions, did he think to check all the mountain meteorological forecasts?  His claim that the winds were not forecast is so wearing;  mountains have their own wind speeds, caused by phenomena such as Katabatic and Anabatic winds, vortices, shearing and convections, while the snow on Snowdon is now posing serious avalanche risks, and he didn't exactly need to be a meteorologist to see what the conditions across Snowdonia were like.  A quick glance up would have told him but, no;  instead he insanely chose to spend a night on his own on one of the most dangerous mountains in the UK, then decided to call out the rescue services to carry his stuff down for him because he felt tired.

How much longer will these tragically inept and uninformed people continue to put the lives of the rescue services at risk?  He has asked not to be named, but that's precisely what ought to be done, and this whole affair is yet another strong argument for the reintroduction of the stocks. Preferably, half way up Tryfan.