[Closed] Minor RANT/smug content, Snowdon yesterday

don't stop them FFS, it's like darwinian selection, if you are too stupid to live, get out of the gene pool. 😉

Where's the smug part, you didn't make it to the top either. 😕

Were you not properly equipped?

The Snowdon mountain railway is officially the worst-idea-ever. Might as well build an escalator up to the summit of every decent hill just to suck all the challenge out of life.

Might as well build an escalator up to the summit of every decent hill

Ooh yeah that would save me knees.

Welcome to Wales' 'killer mountain' in the past five years living here I've seen every imaginable dress on its fair slopes including pink wellies, gym slips, trainers, suits in the middle of winter - the list is endless.

Still, I think we average about 13 deaths per annum including the occasional suicidal police chief, I guess Darwin was right after all..... 😯

grum - [i]slight[/i] smugness from not putting us and others at risk, for being able to walk upright, for knowing what is acceptable risk given equipment and conditions and for not being out of breath after half a mile

It's an adventure. But some of the dodgy footwear is asking for falls. Probably the worst equipped people I have seen is fell runners. On a day when I was wearing fleece and goretex head to toe they were in vests and shorts in a light blizzard! At least they are fit. if one got stuck off track they had zero chance of avoiding hypothermia. Like I said it's an adventure.

I went up on Boxing Day with my axe and crampons in the bag. Didn't need the crampons in the end as snow was relatively soft. But did see some family about 45 mins out of the carpark struggling along in street shoes - seemingly unaware the fact they were having to hold on to the rock to stay upright on a flat piece of path meant they were ill-equipped for the conditions. Never fails to amaze me. But hey ho. Yr lad is lucky to get out on Snowdon in conditions like that when he's so young 🙂

gym slips? 😯 8)

Was at Snowdon on Sunday, lovely day,air sea rescue flying around doing Biggles,talking to a chap who walked up on sunday and he saw a woman fall down the side about 30 feet,and a few of the experienced people up there had to go down and rescue her, also a fireman colapased with chest pains and was airlifted off.
Somebody else fell down today and had to be rescued.

my young'un was over the moon at the whole experience, we was totally gobsmacked by the scale of the mountains and the severe conditions but even he was noticing that people were struggling and not quite equipped or in control

Shirley pink wellies, bermuda shorts n'that is like riding rijid, SS, or a 29ers, its the difficulty of using wholly inappropriate equipment that adds to the adventure.

/waves from the fell runner
Wearing next to nothing is fine if you're moving, and we've all got our gossamer-thin full body cover in our bumbags. I reserve the right to look like a numpty, whilst simultaneously looking down on anyone else who doesn't fit my world view 🙂

Really though, you learn by your mistakes, some of those people will have had just enough of an adventure and might have been bitten by the bug and come back better equipped. Or they might just have been numpties 🙂

A few years ago, also at Easter, I was also marveling at how ridiculously clothed people were for Snowdon. The piece de resistance: a woman at the top in a pair of flip flops. Numpties

+1 for the fell runners

All you ramblers in your Goretex and fleece need to toughen up a bit. Sure it's a bit bracing at the top in a few feet of snow (just make sure theres no breach in your short legs!) but we get it done and coming down is a hoot!

fell runners - making everyone else look rubbish since for ever

I often climb snowy mountains in beach shorts - get far too hot otherwise. I do agree though, plenty go out ill-equipped.

Have seen a granny in court shoes on Ben Nevis.

I too have seen flip flops at the summit. Sheer lunacy, but then again they probably just see it as walking from the train to the 'pile of rocks'.

Re the train, a bikes only uplift day would be awesome 😆

I know what you're saying, I walked up in a pair of Spesh SPD's - the blisters were quite painful by the end! 😆

Also, the halfway café had some news paper clippings of girls wearing summer dresses and sandals and the like, shown on a glory board of sorts.

What's worse then? Mountain rescue having to come out to the aid of some-one because they've slipped over and hurt themselves wearing normal shoes, or coming to the rescue of some-one who's slipped over and hurt themselves wearing gore-tex and proper hiking boots?

stop worrying about what other people get up to, it's none of your business. Alternatively put some money in the Mtn Rescue tin, so they can carry on rescuing everybody from mountains

I remember reading about some chap who builds his own boats then has to get rescued whilst out at sea - happens to him a lot. Oh well....

i've seen all those types in the mountains too, instead of criticising them how about thinking that some of these people will enjoy their experience enough to learn from experience and return. maybe bringing their children with them. none of these people are as big a 'numpty' as those that tell themselves that the mountains etc are dangerous, stay away, and sit on their arses all their lives - or worse, encourage their kids to do the same.

talking to some of them can be good, gives you a chance to find out how they're getting on and they'll often seem far more relaxed in their 'inadequate gear' than us outdoor types in £100s worth of gear would like to believe! 😉

gotta agree with the mtn rescue pressure issues, but thankfully there are guys like them who usually have seen enough to uderstand why people do it. Nickc, damn right, we should all drop a few £ in the collection boxes when there or in local gear shop, they really are all men of the highest order.

Yet for the amount of people seen being so stupid and ill-equipped, there are comparatively not that many falls, so maybe all the equipment so often seen as essential isn't as necessary as we like to think?

Have you seen what mountain climbers used to wear in the past, tweed suits and the like?!

"fell runners - making everyone else look rubbish since for ever"

yeah ok, gits )
last time i was trudging up snowdon from the llewed side in the summer evening light a young woman ran up and past me, like she weighed 10lbs, no perceptable effort on a loose, steep slope. i've always thought that's the defenition of being comfortable in the mountains, grace and balance like that, fast and light etc.

i'd be a good fell runner if my knees could handle the downs. and, if i could run.

We got involved in rescuing a couple of climbers on Snowdon, they got stuck halfway up, couldn't climb up (exposed crux), didn't know how to absail, didn't dare down climb. The bloke had gone to pieces a bit, he admitted he had little experience (lots of nice new kit tho). His American/canadian female companion had no idea at all.
It was our chance of a moment of glory, as it was, we saw them to a safe ledge, then a series of mis comms by the MRT meant we abandoned them to their fate. Eventually the Heli came and picked them up.

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I'd be a good fell runner if I could run.

Good point about rubbish gear. Mallory and Irvine had worse gear on Everest in the 20s than is now required to safely navigate Ambleside High Street. Actually, that's not a great example is it?

....rescuing a couple of climbers....

...they got stuck halfway up, couldn't climb up (exposed crux), didn't know how to absail, didn't dare down climb

Not climbers then !!

We got involved in rescuing a couple of climbers on Snowdon, they got stuck halfway up, couldn't climb up (exposed crux),

where was that, cloggy?

"Mallory and Irvine had worse gear on Everest in the 20s than is now required to safely navigate Ambleside High Street"

ahh that's the BS that the big clothing brands are selling us 😉 when in fact string vests, wool and tweed may well be better in many conditions than a lot of the plastic based stuff they sell now. everest's been climbed in replica 20's gear recently and the climbers said the clothing wouldn't held them back at all.

I'd be a good fell runner if I knew what it was.

And could run.

thats the "highest one" in wales then

Never forget running up Pen-y-fan in South Wales, loads and loads of snow, but a easy run. Just as I came to the top which was the steap part a couple of fully kitted out guys came down, looked and just laughed at me 😆

Think fell runners are an exception really as generally they understand the outdoors.

I do laugh at some of the Noobs that go up Snowdon etc... but there you go!

italspark, if you're answering my q i meant which area of snowdon ) just out of interest, as the only areas with exposed cruxes as such aren't places for inexperienced climbers - places like cloggy that give me the shivers!

+1 for the fell runners

All you ramblers in your Goretex and fleece need to toughen up a bit. Sure it's a bit bracing at the top in a few feet of snow (just make sure theres no breach in your short legs!) but we get it done and coming down is a hoot!

fell runners - making everyone else look rubbish since for ever

+1

Daisy Duke who guided around that area for a few years and knows the area like the back of his hand told me a good story about leading a group of walkers down in the dark after they had misjudged it! he was in shorts and a T shirt after a summers evening jog to the top. He resisted taking them over Grib Goch!!

Snobs up mountains? Whatever next! 😉

sofatester - Member
Snobs up mountains? Whatever next!

The Peaks being busy on Easter Monday?