… I’d thought, being level headed and all, I’d know what to do with most outdoors incidents tbh. But this evening in -4 icy conditions I came across a youngster (well half my age so not so young) on their own who asked for help with a puncture.
Once that was sorted we were chatting and it was obvious that the cold and ice / snow were terrifiying them. So we agreed to a social amble back to reality and got chatting.
Thing was every 30 seconds they crashed, face planted, otb, hit a tree….. Anyway it was a bit icy, but no matter how slow we went they were as tense as a bowstring. Every turn on the bars was 90 degrees one way or the other. Maybe 15 crashes later we were back to base.
Every corner, slope, camber. you could just see the shoulders rising, the fists clencing… smack! Ouch! We got back just before dark.
So basically – what can you do with someone that’s so wound up by a circumstance, even somewhere they’re used to riding, something they’re used to doing, what can you do / say to get them back to themselves?