Safety

Safety was important to me. It was a cold and misty afternoon. I was in the Lake District on a walk to inspect the drinking water reservoir. It was just something I liked to do in my spare time. I was halfway up on my climb and stopped for a wayside snack. I sat down and gazed down the sprawling mountain slope. A ring ouzel fluttered past. It reminded me of a similar situation I had been in the previous year. When it comes to personal safety I knew safety equipment was vital. I was fully aware of these matters. Unfortunately two young ramblers I had met in this situation the previous year were not.

I shouldered my pack and continued slowly upward. My pace was steady. If I was going to do this climb I was going to do it safely! I couldn’t help my mind wandering back to that fateful afternoon that I had been reminded of at my stop. I replayed the events in my mind. It was bitterly cold and we were in the Yorkshire dales. I noticed the two ramblers immediately because they stood out in particular. They were poorly dressed for the conditions and I felt that they might have been plain stupid. I trailed them from a distance, making sure that they didn’t notice me. Every time they looked back I made a movement like a seagull so that I surely would not be seen.

How I loved to duck and dodge. I remember laughing out loud at the safe behaviour I was undergoing. I kept my cool and sure enough the couple had become lost. I had to keep a sharp check on my position just to stay alive. Then the snow came. So thick and fast that I nearly lost the ramblers. Needless to say, I was forced to stop them and ask if they needed my assistance. I took out a thermos of hot drink and gave it to them. Then I put them in my emergency bothy bag and told them to stay calm. I actually noticed the early signs of hypothermia slowly kicking in. When I asked them where they thought they were the answers were shocking. One of them was convinced he was a shark. He kept puffing his cheeks out as if they were gills.

Now, here on the mountainside the reservoir wasn’t far off. I stood at the head of the reservoir. Night was coming on fast. It reminded me of a time a year ago. I was skidding and sliding my way down a large crag when I realized I had gone bananas. I then knew I had to act. I had left a kit bag full of emergency safety gear at a location in the cliff some weeks before, in anticipation of an emergence such as the then present one. Unfortunately I had buried the kit bag deep under a patch of soft ground and did not have a shovel.

I then remembered I had tied a small stash of money to the crags and looked to see if I could find that. I couldn’t locate that either. I was stuffed. As I harkened back I made a note that this emergency was all down to a lack of planning. Next time I’d take a trolley full of gear. I saw a Raven. Presently, the drinking water systems surrounded me. They all seemed to be in order. Then I remembered that I wasn’t at the reservoir after all! I had fallen in the lake and, flailing on the bank half choking on lake water, I had almost drowned. Shocking! I was lucky to be alive! That was it. I had had enough. I vowed never to go near the mountains again.