The man in the wheelchair was evacuated from by the Snowdon Mountain Railway. Photo Andrew Farquhar ![[CC-2.0]](/lib/img/layout/cc-attr.gif)
A man in a wheelchair was left half way up Snowdon by colleagues on a charity walk.
The disabled man was abandoned yesterday, Saturday, at the bottom the Allt Moses below Clogwyn station when the going got too steep for the six martial-arts enthusiasts who had pushed the 31-year-old up the Llanberis path. A mountain rescue team was called and they took the man to the safety of the Snowdon Mountain Railway which was used to get him back to the valley.
Ian Henderson of Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team, which went to the man’s aid, said: “They had researched the route – apparently from the top of the Tarmac road, but not much further – and had information that said there was disabled access to the top of Snowdon – which there sort of is, from the cafe at the top!
“At Clogwyn station one of them rang 999 and asked for a helicopter to rescue the guy in the wheelchair as they would be too tired to push him back down.”
Meanwhile, members of another karate club from Bangor had found the man in the wheelchair and stayed with him until mountain rescuers arrived.
The Snowdon wheelchair push by the team of six from Coventry was part of a larger event staged to raise funds for a disabled person.
Fifteen members of the Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team went to his aid.
Mr Henderson called the rescue callout ‘cheeky’ and said the men should have turned back when they realised they couldn’t carry on with their wheelchair carry. The man was suffering from the cold and was beginning to be hypothermic.
He said the rest of party was collected later by the Llanberis team and ‘debriefed in an assertive manner’.
Charity events cause mountain rescue teams extra work because of the unprepared state of many of the participants, who often have little or no hillwalking experience.
Glenn
19 October 2009Like all mountain rescue teams these individuals give their time, and expertise for free (and, indeed risk their own safety)
What is not free is the cost of their equipment and the rescuers own expenses (including lost earnings)
I hope these idiots from Coventry will be asked to reinburse the cost of this rescue.
Andy
19 October 2009This shows an almost unbelievable lack of understanding of the level of fitness required and potential dangers involved in this type of charity stunt, not to mention a complete disregard for the well-being of the disabled participant.
Surely there's a case here for bringing criminal charges of some kind?
steve
19 October 2009What an upsetting story/ occurrence: it's unbelievable! total disregard for other people - they should be charged with endangering another (vulnerable - POVA) persons life
Rex Kwon Do
19 October 2009Admirable! Such manly wisdom!
They kept in touch with their senses and followed the most important rule of the Martial Arts.
BREAK THE LEGS AND WALK AWAY!
Gary
19 October 2009What a bunch of usless plonkers in my opinion and that icludes the fool in the wheelchair
jimmyonini
19 October 2009Surely it's not just charity eventers who are unprepared? just sit at pen y pass any dry day in summer and watch families, lured by the tarmac of the Miners tack, wander off up the mountain in their shell suits!
Tasha
20 October 2009Three words-Name and Shame!
zigzag
20 October 2009They could have done what whillans would have done and fit the chair on the rail tracks, soon got down.
Actually Don will be turning in his grave at the sheer stupidity of the city Idiots
anonymous
20 October 2009I would like to know the martial arts discipline of these so called 'black belts'.
I'm learning Aikido and I can't imagine anything like this ever happening among practitioners of my particular martial art.
anonymous
20 October 2009From reading other articles, it turns out that these were kickboxers.
Kickboxing doesn't have the philosophical bent of more-traditional martial arts. The traditional arts (Kung Fu, older forms of Karate) and 'neo-traditionals' (like my Aikido) talk about a person's responsibilities to others immediately around them as well as the wider world. A little philosophical component on those lines might have lead these hikers to different decisions in the situation they faced. They were trying to benefit a theoretical, distant disabled person, and, in the face of group-think and competition, forgot to care for the very non-theoretical disabled person among their group.
I kind of wish the article had described them as 'kickboxers', instead of as 'martial artists'. I think there's a difference in disposition, the same way there's a different disposition between a drummer and other members of a band even though they're all musicians.
Julian
20 October 2009The article lies - he wasn't left alone for even a second, no mountain rescuers came to his aid - one man was waiting at the bottom for him and that is it. The man in the wheelchair was insistant that he had made it to the halfway point by himself before so they assumed he'd be ok to push. It's the fault of the orgainsers.
Andy
21 October 2009I was there at the Half way cafe when the man and his "team" stopped. In my opinion they were very ill equipped for the walk. the group had no ropes or harnesses for the wheelchair and were using brute force and willpower to carry the man, It was obvous to many walkers that this group would have problems in continuing to the summit.
Most wore a Martial arts club tee shirt thats why the aryicle refers to the club that way.
On our decent from the summit a couple of the group passed us and when we hit the cafe a mountain rescue man was supervising a team of people who were carrying the man and chair down the mountain.
My self and my college went prepared with proper clothing, rucksac map, compass etc. It was depressing to see how many day trippers were in jeans, tee shirts and trainers, thankfully the ewather stayed warm and dry but its a miracle that many more are not injured or kiled through lack of basic preparation.
Julian
21 October 2009The group was not aware before the climb that they'd have to accompany the disabled man - the organisers divided them all into groups and theirs just happened to have the man in it. Bully for you and your compass.
Mrs D Gill
22 April 2013Myself and my husband climbed Snowdon on the 22nd and it took us 3.5 hours to get to the summit via the Miners track . We returned via the track parellel to the railway . I was very unhappy that there was absolutely no toilet facility until we returned ... which was 7 hours later .
The train station at the summit was closed and the restaurant midway were happy to sell tea/coffee etc at an atrocious price but kept their toilets shut . I suffered severe cramps in my legs , but was scared to drink too much water with the fear that i may need a loo that wasent available . Can sombody do something and put a loo in place please :-(
Grimandave
24 April 2013Mrs D Gill, that is an outstanding wind-up, I hope you get some bites!