What would YOU do?

[Ollie]

It is mid-October and five of you are out in Snowdonia, backpacking. At mid-day you passed within sight of a village and stopped mid-afternoon for a late dinner break. Your route has taken you over a saddle between two peaks and you were aiming to camp overnight in the next valley. the unscheduled stop has caused you to reach the highest point (2000ft) later than you would have liked, with less than one hour of daylight left.

You are a little worried about a member of the party, as he has been off his food for two days, seems very tired, and has started to stagger and trip more than usual. When you ask if he's ok, he complains of tiredness and sounds very emotional. His speech is slurred. The cloud level is just above you and dropping, when you have to stop because of a broken rucsac strap.

He finally grinds to a halt and collapses, knocking another member of the party. In vain, the girl who he fell against grabs out to stop herself falling, and drags two rucsacs with her. She lands on a narrow ledge about fifteen feet below her and does not move; the rucsacs dissapearing into the gloom. Realising he is to blame for the accident, the guy who collapsed gets hysterical and starts sobbing.

The only source of communication for the group, a mobile phone, was in one of the rucsacs. By now, it is fairly misty. You can just make out the lights in the next valley but they are on the other side of a river which you know from previous experience to be about twenty foot wide and a foot deep. The route you followed takes you back to another village, but that is at least seven miles. The only other route is to go straight over the top of the peak and down the other side to an outdoor pursuits centre.

A quick look through the remaining few backs reveals the following items:


Several sachets of dehydrated food.
Two pints of water
Three torches
One large and two small first aid kits
One 20 metre length of 9mm rope.
Two outers from the three rather ancient 2 man tents you were carrying, but only one set of poles and no inners.
Two methylated spirit stoves with five litres of fuel
Three sets of waterproof clothing
Three sleeping bags
So, What would you do? :confused:

[Oli-picka]

apart from thinking " This sucks" id probably ummm......

[Marmot]

How many other people are there in the group? And what experience do we all have?

[Ollie]

How many other people are there in the group? And what experience do we all have?
"It is mid-October and five of you are out in Snowdonia, backpacking."

And for convenience' sake, they're all as experienced as you are.

Ollie

[Marmot]

I didnt actually read your blurb so don tget all quotey with me! If they were all as experienced as i am we wouldnt be in this mess!
Ok, for me scenario reads: we got one novice who is "ill" we have an injured girl not moving on a ledge (i hav read it all now, thanx) and 3 people who are physically strong and level headed.
Now ive made it clear to myself i shall attempt to redeem the situation in my next post...

[Marmot]

One able bod shouts at person on ledge to try and get a response, the two others take the collapsed guy onto safe and stable ground, as close as possible to accident site. (strecture out of handy walking poles or tree branches using jumpers and all that jazz)
Tent with poles is erected and ill person is bundled in with sleeping bag.
He is looked after by remaining normal person and is fed with concentrated dehidrated food, (not alot of water added to be kept for later)

The other able bod packs together bag with what will call the survival kit.
Large and small first aid kit, rope, all three sets of waterproofs, a sleeping bags, tent outer, (possibly food and water for injured girl, depends if your being optimistic that they wont need surgery, ie, shouldnt be given food) and some water and food for rescuers. And two of the torches. And of course the rope.
Guy with bag goes back to person who stayed to shout at victim, (shall we say, no response as yet?)

Rope removed from bag, waterproofs put on. Decision on who is most qualified in area of first aid and most happy being on a rope. This made he dons bag full of kit and descends using a body belay. (Rope is secured to an inanimate obeject, if you are taking a rope out on walks is always worth taking some cams or some slings and karabinas so u that if u cant find a tree u can make a bomber (strong) anchor.
To make things more fun, and to let u know some more tricks, shall we say there is nothing to tie onto so person up top has to hold on to rope, to do this dont tie it around u cause then u might be pulled off, but make sure you are lying down to increase surface area and friction, also to lower the point of weight (if your standing easier to topple over...)

on reaching ledge and seeing that it is stable, person goes to girl on ledge checks her out (fit) shallow breathing, but rythmic pulse, no response to vocal or physical stimuli (pinch of skin) check body for broken bones, nothing (clouds obviously lead to moisture in air which lead to soft ground to break her fall) These checks would be shouted up to guy ontop with rope so he knows whats going on, assume she is unconcious. Weather has set in so decide to sleep it out, put waterproofs on girl, stuff her in sleeping bag, erect shelter and climb in sleeping bag with her, to share body warmth heat.

Guy ontop goes back to main tent area gets some grub and early in morning one able bod and the "ill" bod, who has recovered, set off on easiest fastest trail for help.

Reason take old "ill" bod is cause if two able bods go off for help he might become ill again and no one to look after him, or will be in a weakened state and wouldnt be able to help people on ledge.

Decsision to walk off for help and not find phone is that the way i see it the bags have fallen into the river, the one 20ft across and 1ft deep, so phone would be water logged, wouldnt work, or couldnt be certain of signal.

In morning girl regained concious and is pulled up rock face (bowline) by able bod and taken to main shelter to await rescue.

Well thats how id do it, what have i done wrong?
(i hav taken easy options, like no broken bones, but the theory is still, in my eyes, sound

[Marmot]

The route you followed takes you back to another village, but that is at least seven miles. The only other route is to go straight over the top of the peak and down the other side to an outdoor pursuits centre.
i very cunningly ddint answer this question, but which one would you head for?

[Taff Craven]

Well, I'd be part of the the local celtic hill tribe watching this farcial episode by a bunch of english invaders and as soon as it went dark we would swoop down and kill these daft english people:eek: and then steal their belongings and drink their blood whilst dancing around a large fire laughing hysterically!! LOL:D


ONLY JOKING BEFORE ANYONE TAKES ME SERIOUSLY AND STARTS TO FLAME ME!:)

[Survivaldon]

Well if the guy who initailly collapsed, causing the accident, has gone only 2 days without food, that would denote to me that he has a medical problem, i.e.; diabetes, hypo-glycemic, anemic, etc.

While time is of the essence to get attention to the girl on the ledge, my first priority would be to the guy who collapsed. Not fully knowing the extent of the injuries of the girl on the ledge, you must treat the collapsee before he goes into anaphalytic shock or possible sugar coma?! It sounds like he is having an insulin, potassium, or low-blood sugar reactionary problem?

After stabilizing him with some food (candy bar, etc.) the best you can, my next priority would be to rapell down, with the large first-aid kit, to the girl so I can assess her condition. If she was alive, I would then cover her with what ever was available....sleeping bag, leaves, pine boughs, plastic trash bag, etc. I would then, build a fire and use the 2 tent halves as a make-shift shelter to keep her alive during the night. After assessing the situation, the remaining 2 people would be sent to the next village for full help. They (the 2 leaving) would make sure that tha collapsee was in a sleeping bag and a fire was built for him with plenty of firewood. As well, I would have them lower down, by rope, enough firewood for the 2 of us on the ledge and one of the pints of water.

1 torch, a sleeping bag and the other pint of water would remain with the collapsee, 1 torch with me, and the third torch with the 2 setting out for the village or outdoor centre, which ever was the most expedient.

[m011i3]

Sounds like Marmot wants to"stuff" the "fit" girl in the sleeping bag AND get in with her - just generally get snug for the night eh? ;-]
Oh and oops - somebody dropped the rope ...SHUCKS :-#

[Ollie]

He's such a ladies man! Good to see these old threads getting a new lease of life! :D