Well, I should have remember that it was the summer, and a weekend and the weather was bad and therefore the pager was going to start buzzing at some point. I hadn’t thought about it because I was suppose to be work, but some mis-communication meant that I only ended working on Sunday. Anyway at 2.30 the pager sprang into life, and then I started springing into life as well. trying to put a hill bag together after over three weeks was difficult, when the last time i went outside it was short and t-shirts. I had a very light (under equipped sack) when I left the house.
My next mission was to remember where the hell i had parked the Van, I nearly went to the wrong place but then i remember that it was way down past V12. Anyway after all the faff, I thought I would be one of the last people there, but no. So it was up the Llanberis Path, where we managed to hitch a ride on the railway. A short walk down to the casualty from the train, and after about 30 minutes we started trying to walk them off, before eventually resorting to a stretcher after the helicopter had made three valiant efforts to get into a position to winch. Unfortunately the air was so turbulent, it almost turned the helicopter around at one point.
Fortunately the Mountain Railway had sent us up a private train (no mini bar though!), which waited and waited until we eventually all got on board, and transported the casualty down to Llanberis where the helicopter took her to A&E. Typically just as we were heading off the hill a second job started, now I had already committed to cooking some food for a BBQ, so had to disappear, however a few more jobs occurred, and in total Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team had dealt with 4 rescues, and Ogwen team another potential 8, although that figure is from the news, so could include Llanberis’ jobs as well.
The majority of those job was from the Welsh 1000 metre race, where 240 competitors race across the peaks from the coast near Aber Falls all the way to the Summit of Snowdow. Given the foul conditions, it was a lot colder and winder than it had been just the day before, and I heard reports of hail/snow/ice falling on the Summit of Snowdon, which goes to show how cold it was.
Anyway it would seem that over 10% of the runners needed assistance in someway, some within 1 hour of the race starting. Now given that in 2007 someone died falling on this race, which to me seems ridiculous as if you running that race you need to be competent to make good navigational decision and have the ability to deal with steep ground and not run over a cliff. Similarly why did so many people need rescuing just because of a bit of unseasonal weather. Again people entering a race like that should be grown up enough to look after themselves, and be able to say enough is enough before they get themselves into dire situations. I was certainly very cold on the Llanberis Path, mainly due to the fact that I could find all the clothing before I left the house, and I also lost my woolly hat on holiday.
Whilst I don’t think the race should be banned, a little screening of the competitors, might not go amiss. Simply asking them to tick a few boxes, yes I can navigate, yes I have done a fell race of this length, yes I do know it is risky…. Is all well and good, but how do you know that they can make reasonable decision, and not just go until they collapse of exhaustion and then come down with hypothermia. It certainly kept all the local rescue teams busy in Wales, they probably kept the best part of 60 to 80 members of the LLMRT and OVMRT from having there dinner, not to mentioned filled up A&E with hypothermia cases.
Of course a really big question is why didn’t they postpone the race till today, which whilst still wet, at least started off dry, and the wind had dropped. It is a shame that this race is getting a bit of a reputation as an epic event, however given that for most reasonably fit mountain people the race would take in excess of 12 hours!
I can’t complain really, as I was at my BBQ having a drink or two when these guys were being rescued by my friends. Besides I had to get up at 7am and go to work in some dry clothes, neither of which would have happened if I stayed out on the hill all night.