In reply to Trangia:
I was appalled at some of the responses.
If anyone gets themselves into a situation they feel that they are unable to extricate themselves from, I would hope that they call the relevant help in rather than let the situation degenerate to a worse outcome. I imagine most of the responders would rather provide help than a body recovery service.
After the event - regardless of the severity, both perceived and actual - I would hope that the people concerned would take stock and ask themselves how they could be better prepared in the future, and in the cold light of day would consider how they could have rescued themselves at the time. Such reflection leads to them being better prepared in the future. This is how we learn.
What really worries me is that people reading some of the responses might now try and extricate themselves from a situation they are not equipped to handle based on some of the responses here on UKC.
In my naive view, it doesn't matter at what "level" someone is participating at in the great outdoors (e.g. North face of the Eiger vs a 2 pitch gritstone climb vs a walk in the hills) - if you are out of your depth, you are out of your depth. It's relative based on skills and knowledge. At times I imagine that we have
all found ourselves in a situation well out of our depth, sometimes we luck out, sometimes we keep it together and fix it, and sometimes people need help. Far better that than the alternative.
The suggestions from some people that someone being in need of rescue on such a minor climbing venue makes the situation laughable is poisonous crap in my view. It's not about the "extreme" factor of the activity, but about the
relative difference in the level of the activity and the experience of the victim. Otherwise we must accept that 90% of mountain rescue activities in the UK (rescue of lost/injured hillwalkers) is equally laughable as that's even less extreme than becoming cragfast on an E1. It's not often I openly pass judgement but some people are so far up their posteriors on this one.
I feel that some posters are mixing up a somewhat valid judgement (getting oneself into a fix) with a totally invalid judgement (calling for help when recognising that one is in a fix.) Personally I wouldn't even judge people for getting in to a fix as I recognise that we all start somewhere and things happen. I've never got myself into that situation in climbing but have been perilously close in other activities.
Post edited at 20:04