Observer Focuses On Scout Tragedy

Yesterday's Observer newspaper carried a sad and worrying examination of the Snowdonia accident which led to the death of a ten-year old Scout in 1999.

In a piece which will conern anyone contemplating allowing their child to go into the mountains with a youth group, Ed Douglas questions the decision to take a group of inexperienced Scouts along the Crib Goch arrete on Snowdon and the choice of the east ridge of the mountain as a descent route.

It's the first comprehensible explanation we've seen of which route was actually taken when Jonathan Attwell fell to his death, but also a wider look at the procedures followed by the Scouts, which have since been overhauled. The leader of the group was charged with manslaughter but acquitted last year, however Jonathan Attwell's parents are reportedly continuing a civil action against the Scout Association.