This seems very simple situation – and you did all the right things. Attend to the injured, sort help, stay with them until help comes – job done, and well done. In a similar situation I might have shouted at passing riders for more help if I felt it necessary, but yes, it is unsettling that so many failed to even ask a quick ‘you OK?’. The casualty might have been cold and a few jackets could have helped; maybe someone was carrying a FA kit or survival bag; maybe just the moral support of a bunch of riders stopping and offering help, advice, or just keeping you company might have been nice. The motto is simple, it might be you face down in the shit – what would you want? And I am fairly certain the Daily Mail style ‘helpful passer-by sued for trying to help’ headline is total nonsense. I haven’t read or heard of anything like this.

Well done, glad to know at least some people not only know what the right thing is, but do it too.

BoardinBob – Member

How they can class the Witch’s Trail in the same category as this one is beyond me.

This is what gets me a bit… Grading’s inconsistent, everyone knows that but it shouldn’t be so massively inconsistent over a trail a mile away. Especially not when they have their skills area with its easy red, which says “If you can do this, go do the reds!” Not clever.

doh – Member

i thought it was a red grade DH not a red grade XC.

Not really such a thing in the UK, we grade DH trails orange. Nevis Red is definately supposed to be a red XC route and is signed and avertised as such.

I was involved in an evacuation on the DH track this time last year. On my first run down Myself and two friends came across a guys who had dislocated his hip. It one friend contacted the bottom station and a evacuation gondola was sent up from the bottom.
Whilst waiting and comforting this poor guy, countless idiots rolled by at speed taking very little notice or offering any kind of support.

Indeed, when it came to lifting the guy on a stretcher to underneath the wire we had to physically stand in the middle of the track to stop people tearing past us as we carried him to be lifted.

I was shocked at the time how many inconsiderate fools there are in my own sport.
Really depressing.

shifter – Member
You certainly can’t specify what someone else may or may not notice with any degree of certainty…

you’ve got to be kidding me. Are you seriously trying to say that a motionless body and a bike lying in some heather just off a wooden board walk isn’t going to catch your attention?

I’m not kidding. This futile argument isn’t about what would catch my attention. Are you saying that the folk who rode by actually saw a “motionless body”? I don’t believe the situation is as clear cut as you think it is and humans are notoriously bad witnesses of things happening in front of their eyes never mind “20′ off the trail” that “needs 100% concentration”.

I think if those riders actually saw “a motionless body” (your words) they would’ve stopped.

The guy was wearing a bright orange jacket

Stevie Wonder would’ve seen him

. If it has to be pegged to the grading system used at trail centres, it should be black. It’s steep, relentless, rough, technical, requires full concentration 100% of the time and the penalty for failure can be severe. How they can class the Witch’s Trail in the same category as this one is beyond me.

To be honest I consider most blacks to be reds in the UK, they’re rarely taxing when compared to continental trails of the same grading. To me this also highlights the vast jump from black to “mental boardwalk freeriding” type stuff which so often catches people out.

As for riding past folk – I’ve probably done it a million times as I rarely watch things off-trail when it’s tricky, but even so I wouldn’t stop unless the person was alone and looked unconscious/seriously hurt or someone with them was waving for help. Personally when injured but not too badly the last thing I want is folk to stop and embarrass me further!

Stevie Winder rides an MTB?
Wow – chapeau.

I think we need to face the fact that ‘we’ have become selfish as a species. Can’t be arsed. Someone else will do something. Fear – of interacting with other people, possible conflict. Lack of confidence in communication skills. It’s all over the place, not just biking. It’s possible we just don’t care as much as we used to but I think it’s a reversible trend. You bucked it 🙂

>Someone else will do something.<

Nail on head.

Not buying into the “when I’m on trail I’m completely in the zone” mentality. A blind man on a galloping horse is going to spot someone in an orange jacket lying anywhere near that part of the trail.

On reflection I’m really not that surprised – NR and Trail Centres in general are magnets for the type of arseholes who would ignore someone.

And if everyone had stopped, crowding around the unfortunate victim no doubt they would have been accused of being voyeurs.

They were probably all chasing Strava KOMs. Bradley Wiggins has a word for people like this.

P.S how do you know if Stevie Wonder has been in your fridge ? Fingerprints in the butter.

Just add more pointless input to this, I was up there yesterday and as a result of reaing this thread on Sunday evening, found my eye being caught by rocks etc off to the side of the trail on the off chance that some poor soul was lying there with no teeth and a punctured lung. So cheers BoardinBob, you nearly had me off too!

What did catch my attention was two guys hiring big bikes, full facers and body armour. They obviously had never, never been anywhere near a mountain bike. So they sign the disclaimer, pay their coin and take the gondola. Seriously they were struggling to ride the hire bikes round the lift stations! Walking down the length of the track, I must have passed them on three separate runs – don’t worry I did the needful and asked if they were ok each time. Quite cheery replies to begin with, less so as their very expensive walk down a hill with a bike, in armour, became a tedious, if not dangerous reality…

I know it’s impossible to police, and the lift company/bike hire folk need every penny of income they can get their hands on, but I’m thinking the Red Xc grade is misleading folk into thinking its something much much simpler…everytime I’ve been there has been folk down both tracks who probably by that point realised thy had no business being there.

As an aside, my mate was talking to Alistair Maclennan. He was there filming with the Chain Reaction DH team on the Orange WC track yesterday and came over the Nissan/Tissot(can’t remember what it’s called) jump near the bottom to find a chap on an HT attempting to climb UP the hill…the mind boggles!

Boardinbob, I have just come across your blog, which you mention how you came across me when I had my accident, I just want to say a massive Thanks, you are a top man… thank you… I have just finally recovered , I have new teeth and the only pains I have are around my chest but they are mild now, times a healer they say. I ended up breaking my sternum, no wonder it bloody hurt..

Cheers mate…. If your ever down Castleford, drop me a mail si.allen@hotmail.co.uk and i will buy you a big drink mate

no bother mate. glad youre ok!