Good grief!
It would seem that a young lady wearing shorts and trainers had to be rescued from Scotland's highest mountain. Yahoo Now while Ben Nevis is a mere 4411ft, we do experience rather nasty weather during the winter and the conditions now are arctic. Only recently a couple were missing for 6 weeks until their bodies were recovered last week under an avalanche. And, the Yahoo report describes that she was found wandering on the north face of the mountain. This is not the 'tourist path' but the climbers side of the mountain. Even in summer, you cant get up that route without rope and gear. [BTW........Yahoo are incorrect in that Ben Nevis is not in the Cairngorms - that is a whole other range of mountains]
That is one very, very lucky woman. She is also lucky to get away with the mild rebuke issued by the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team. What she did seems like sheer arrogance and she very nearly paid the price with her life.
It reminds me of two stories.
One was when I was on a mountain in the Glencoe area - Bidean nam Bian. As I was descending the summit - where an igloo had been constructed - 2 young men wearing trainers and denim jackets clambered up the side of the mountain. They asked me where the summit was and produced a photocopied diagram of the mountain. Not a map! I tried to reason with them that they would never reach the summit in the gear that they were wearing. I had required crampons and axe to get down. I am sure they ignored me, but I have no idea.
The second story was when I met a member of the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team on a summit facing Ben Nevis in a group of mountains called the Mamores. We chatted as he ate his 50th birthday cake. As we watched a search and rescue helicopter on exercise over Ben Nevis he told me of some of the crazy rescues he had been called out to on the 'Ben'. He considered the worst to be a Japanese woman who had attempted to climb the mountain in high heeled shoes. She didnt get far before she broke her ankle! :doh:
It would seem that a young lady wearing shorts and trainers had to be rescued from Scotland's highest mountain. Yahoo Now while Ben Nevis is a mere 4411ft, we do experience rather nasty weather during the winter and the conditions now are arctic. Only recently a couple were missing for 6 weeks until their bodies were recovered last week under an avalanche. And, the Yahoo report describes that she was found wandering on the north face of the mountain. This is not the 'tourist path' but the climbers side of the mountain. Even in summer, you cant get up that route without rope and gear. [BTW........Yahoo are incorrect in that Ben Nevis is not in the Cairngorms - that is a whole other range of mountains]
That is one very, very lucky woman. She is also lucky to get away with the mild rebuke issued by the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team. What she did seems like sheer arrogance and she very nearly paid the price with her life.
It reminds me of two stories.
One was when I was on a mountain in the Glencoe area - Bidean nam Bian. As I was descending the summit - where an igloo had been constructed - 2 young men wearing trainers and denim jackets clambered up the side of the mountain. They asked me where the summit was and produced a photocopied diagram of the mountain. Not a map! I tried to reason with them that they would never reach the summit in the gear that they were wearing. I had required crampons and axe to get down. I am sure they ignored me, but I have no idea.
The second story was when I met a member of the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team on a summit facing Ben Nevis in a group of mountains called the Mamores. We chatted as he ate his 50th birthday cake. As we watched a search and rescue helicopter on exercise over Ben Nevis he told me of some of the crazy rescues he had been called out to on the 'Ben'. He considered the worst to be a Japanese woman who had attempted to climb the mountain in high heeled shoes. She didnt get far before she broke her ankle! :doh:
