Winter Appears – With A Vengance/Mountain Safety

Winter is truly here with a dramatic drop of weather, up north, this weekend. Almost inevitably the arrival of harsh conditions were heralded by the first deaths on the mountains. Two young mountaineers died of hypothermia after having being caught in horrendous weather in the Cairngorms.

The two men had been in the area with their university climbing club. They’d been taking part in a winter skills course and after it was over the two of them decided to tackle a challenging climb whilst the others returned to their base. The report that I read said that the two of them had ‘gone off to do their own thing’. It wasn’t clear whether the two of them were instructors of just on a course and we don’t know how experienced they were. But they found themselves in 120 mph winds and temperatures that dropped to minus 20. Sadly, they were recovered alive but both subsequently died in hospital.

Dreadful events like these remind us just how dangerous mountains can be. I’ve talked about this before, but I really worry about some of the coverage winter walking and climbing gets in some of our magazines. The onset of winter is heralded by jovial pieces about crampons and ice axes, accompanied by diagrams showing you how to walk in crampons, cut steps in the snow, etc. Somehow I worry that many of these pieces trivialise the mountains in winter, reducing them to just another ‘extreme sport’, but one without the safety harnesses. Over the last couple of years I met young people, each winter, buying equipment in gear shops who’ve not undertaken a proper winter training course.

Mountains can be frightening places and there’s not much wrong in being scared from time to time. Being scared and frightened is often nothing more than showing the mountains the respect that they deserve. Mountains are dangerous places. Trust your instinct and don’t take risks.

There is an old adage that the mountain will always be there next time. And so it will.