Police Criticize Tracksuit And Trainers Man On Ben

Lochaber police have criticised an Essex man who set off for an ascent of Ben Nevis at 6 pm wearing track suit trousers and trainers and had to be talked down using a mobile phone.

Taxi!!!! RAF rescue chopper in action (N.Wales) pic by Simon Kirwan - the-lightbox.com

The man's companion retreated when mist came in, but the 21-year-old became disorientated and had to be talked back onto the path by the local mountain rescue team. Lochaber MRT leader Terry Confield pointed out that the summit temperatures at the time were only around 3 degrees C, the ascent normally takes around eight hours and that inadequate clothing can reduce the chances of survival if things go wrong.

It's just the latest in a series of summer incidents on the Ben, generally caused when inexperienced walkers under-estimate the seriousness of the misleadingly named 'tourist path' despite warning notices.

It's two years ago to the day it was a group of three women from the London area who began an ascent of the 'tourist path' in good conditions, but when they turned around to descend were so terrified by the steepness of the path that they stopped, sat down and refused to move. Eventually they were plucked off by a rescue helicopter prompting an MRT spokesman to say mobile phones were becoming a way of ringing a taxi service on Ben Nevis.

And it's not just a summer problem. Last winter Alan Hinkes and an outdoors magazine journalist opened the summit shelter on the mountain to find a pair of poorly equipped students 'waiting for conditions to improve'.

So, if you're reading this just prior to set off up the Ben wearing open-toed sandals and with limited hill walking experience we urge you to reconsider. If the summit of the Ben were just a few hundred feet higher it would be above the permanent snow line, the weather can change with frightening speed and the summit plateau itself is legendarily hazardous and tricky to navigate.

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