 two weekends ago me and a fellow hunter instructor (www.huntertraining.zoomshare.com) were approaching the foot of devils kitchen in snowdonia after a leisurely lunch and brew in idwal only to witness the descent of 42 9year olds coming down from the lake at the top. these kids were wearing wellies, and t shirts and were coming down in pairs or even on their own. half way up the kitchen we met the first of three of the school teachers who was leading this trip...also in wellies and a tshirt. we were amazed at the lack of organisation involved and potentailly how dangerous this was...it was wet, misty and the kids were being told to 'slide down on their bottoms' from the adults who were at the top shouting down, oh and three adults to 42 kids on the devils kitchen..is this not illegal? does anyone else think this was stupid?
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 that's a ratio of 1:14 which I'm sure must be way outside safe practise guidelines.
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exactly, it took the group about 35 minutes to pass us. any one of the kids could have tripped and fallen off nobody would have known. there is no way in which all the children could have been seen at once, the two of us were picking the children up who were literally slipping and sliding past us down the descent!
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 Sounds like a fun afternoon out.
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yeah we did the carneds, tryfan and most of the glyders and were just amazed at the lack of planning and organisation which we saw here...apart from that incident a cracking weekend
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I meant fun for the kids!
They were on the path and not making a direct bum-slide down the Kitchen cliffs?
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they were descending the path yeah, but some of the steps were taller than them. they were jumping down on to wet rocks and slipping every 10 steps or so....
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it would have been a different matter if the leaders were with them in a tight group but the leaders (if u can call them leaders) were nowhewe to be seen for 10 mins+
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Well, sometimes you can be too careful.
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so u think thats acceptable?
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Wonder how many of the teachers hold a ML Cert????
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yeah exactly what we mentioned. all three wearing wellies an t shirts.....speaks for itself i think
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u work for an mrt wayne yeah? is that acceptable....
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 For Cub scouts (8-10.5 years old) there must be 1 adult to 6 Cub Scouts plus the leader in charge. That'd be 8 adults.
It sounds reckless, did you find out which school they were from? I'm all in favour of school trips, but it so easily have ended in trouble. Eejuts like that just get everyone a bad name.
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thanks...wasn't sure on scout ratio's but i know u need an ml to lead kids there. nah didnt get the school name. adults werent very chatty, we were asking the kids what they were up to, they all loved it but i bet the parents didnt know their kids would be doing that. if anything had happened the school would have been in serious riuble.
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u work for an mrt wayne yeah? is that acceptable....
sorry for being pedantic but i do not work for MR i am an UNPAID volunteer like all members of MR.
As a member of an MR Team im not here to judge people but to give up my time to save lives on the mountains and fells.
As a Mountain Leader though i think this is a totally irresponsible act which may have lead to the serious injury or death of an innocent kiddie so....
As a parent im even more flabberghasted
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exactly how i feel. i'm almost 21 and have been hill/mountain walking since i could stand up, and now lead expeds with my fathers company, we have been doing lots of research recently into safety on educational visits and unfortunately this is all to common, and the media has picked up on this a lot in recent years so it still suprises me why leaders are not more careful
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 you just have to ask yourself how you would feel if one of them was YOUR child - mind you some people aren't fit to be parents anyway.
there is no place for wellies on a mountain side or scree for that matter.
i only ever let my children go on a school outing if i was allowed to go along as a supervisor - WHY? cos as a teacher, i knew what so called supervision was like most of the time
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....by the way, keep up the good work wayne. not much need for an mr in essex! although 'hunter' are known to the police to help in any way we can.
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i'm wondering what was written on the letter home? what did the parents think they were doing that afternoon, not climbing up devils kitchen i bet
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