UKC

"A teenager got hypothermia after deciding to climb Snowdon - in just his underpants. Nathan French, 19, had to call the emergency services after completing the 1085 metre climb after becoming unwell at the summit.

An ambulance crew were called to treat the student on Saturday, after his blood sugar and blood pressure dropped and he began to suffer from hypothermia. However the Halewood teen has no regrets over the bizarre challenge - which nearly left him in hospital - because the “stupid” stunt was all to raise money for charity.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/teen-who-climbed-snowdon...

So this cretin raised money for dementia, but cost the rescue service for his stupidity.

Moron.

In reply to Big Ger:

Not sure he should have hassled the emergency services. Some food and a jumper would have sorted it.

In reply to bouldery bits:


More concientious use of contraception 19 & a bit years ago by his parents would have been even better.

In reply to Big Ger:

He's not a Moron - he was raising money for a fantastic cause, albeit by doing something in mountaineering terms that is not paticularly wise. He made it back down unassisted, so I think he did very well.

Not a moron or a cretin in my book.

In reply to moppy:

Exactly. Misguided maybe but doesn't deserve the abuse he is receiving on here.
Im sure the ambulance crew have attended far worse cases of self inflicted harm or injury.

In reply to Big Ger:

at least he had his helmet

In reply to moppy:

He raised £950, but calling out a paramedic crew would have cost £150+, and diverted it away from other calls.
It's a bit like charity parachute jumps (Every £30 raised for charity costs the NHS £13 due to injury)

In reply to Gone for good:



That makes it ok then?

There's a reported national shortfall in funding for ambulance trusts of £700m.
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.thesun.co.uk/news/3625527/englands-nhs-h...

That this stunt would end up with emergency services being called was entirely predictable. Adding avoidable pressure to overstretched services was built in to the whole activity.

The figures in the link below suggest an attendance of an ambulance without a hospital trip cost £155 in 2015.

Allowing for inflation in healthcare costs since then, and the likely higher cost for the rural location, tying up a crew for longer, lets round it up to £200.

If he makes an apology for the avoidable pressure he put on the ambulance service, and makes a donation to the service of, say, £200 of his own money, then we'll call it quits and recognise the effort he's made for an unquestionably worthwhile cause...


https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/society/2015/dec/25/freq...

In reply to mik82:

Snap!

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

Does everybody who takes part in a risky activity and puts emergency services under pressure deserve to be flamed like this?
I cannot see any difference between this and a sea kayaker catching hypothermia because of choppy seas or a climber falling off a crag and getting injured or a walker getting into difficulties on a misty day out in the hills or moors.
My mate had to be helicoptered off Ben More because he couldn't be bothered taking his crampons off whilst glissading down the hill. He spent a week in hospital and 5 months on crutches. I wouldn't have dreamt of taking such a lofty moral position and tut tutting about the pressure on services blah blah blah.
Your view, if you take part in adventure sports, does seem somewhat hypocritical.

In reply to Gone for good:
You really think there is an equivalence in the situations?

Edit because I'm going out and can't wait for the reply:

Of course there is no equivalence between even an inexperienced participant making some sort of assessment of the risks, taking reasonable precautions, and getting caught out by circumstances, and the gross negligence of the most basic safety measures shown in this case, compounded by failure to accept any responsibility.

In a nutshell, the difference between your examples and this is that any idiot could see this would inevitably end in a 999 call, except this idiot, it would seem....

In reply to Gone for good:


Depends if the sea kayaker was naked.

I'm quite grateful we live somewhere where people can make a really bad judgement call and still have a good chance of surviving due to the various emergency and rescue services. It gives me hope that if I ever make a really dumb mistake I've got half a chance of surviving. I'd quietly take being called a moron on social media over freezing to death in my boxers up some mountain.

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:


Can't really argue with that.

In reply to Big Ger:

Could he not have had a friend walking beside him carrying some clothes and a nice flask of soup in anticipation of his having to abort his stunt? Or is this sophisticated level of forethought and planning unfashionable amongst modern yoof?

In reply to DerwentDiluted:

Judging by the number of people at the summit, could he have gone in the cafe to warm up?

In reply to DerwentDiluted:


No, he had to turn the offer down, because for him that would be morally equivalent to his friend bolting up all of Stanage in advance and dangling top ropes everywhere in case he failed on one of his trad climbs and needed to retreat without the risk of injuring himself.


Or I guess it could be that.

In reply to wilkie14c:

Surely this comment wins the internet

In reply to drgrange:

I'm here all week! try the veal!

In reply to Gone for good:

you cant...?
He declares he had never been up a mountain and was wearing 1 item of clothing over his namesake. I challenge you to find anybody -lay person to UKC 'expert', who would not, given the weather and time of year, say this was highly foreseeable.
Participation in adventurous sport will always assume some level of awareness, training and competence (however small) and by its nature errors will have consequences at times...but failing to apply any whatsoever to do something he had clearly thought about, with zeo experience and making an obvious choice to break from the 'norm' can only ever be negligent and reckless...(go and read Patterdales MRT post from this weekend callouts for similar but nothing like as bad).
foreseeable outcome...foreseable public reaction
I do look forward to reading about how his charity freefall parachute jump goes when he has worked it out.

In reply to simondgee:

I said in my first post it was misguided. My point being he doesn't deserve the abuse he's getting for what was meant to be a charitable act. We all make mistakes, in the grand scheme of things his was a minor one.

Seems like I'm one of only a few on here who did lots of stupid things before (and after!) I was 20....

In reply to Gone for good:


The problem with your non judgemental stance is that by not calling him an idiot, other idiots don't realise how stupid he has been and may be tempted to follow suit thinking it was just a laugh. A bit of ridicule isn't going to harm him in the long run but by making an issue of it, he and others, learn the error of his ways.

In reply to mik82:

If I recall correctly "charity" parachute jumps actuall cost the NHS more in total than they raise for the charities concerned. There was a paper published some time ago looking at this.

In reply to Big Ger:

He looks like any old fell runner but without a shirt. Scouse tosser.
And where was he keeping his mobile device?

In reply to Big Ger:

I'd have had a choc ice in my underpants if I'd have done this.

In reply to birdie num num:

I'd have had a choc ice in my underpants if I'd have done this.

I think his choc did turn to ice...

In reply to damowilk:
Yes, you're right, my recall of the reference was incorrect!
Each pound that a charity parachutist raises costs the NHS £13.75, with the average raised for charity being £30
The average cost to the NHS per charity parachute jump is over £400

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10476298

In reply to Gone for good:


Glissading in crampons! Are you serious?

In reply to 99ster:


I am. Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.

In reply to Big Ger:

Just came across this gem;


The mind boggles.

In reply to Big Ger:

I was having a leisurely lunch on Sgurr Dearg when a man wearing boxers and trainers, nothing more, appeared at the top of the Inn Pin, downclimbed the VS or Severe or whatever it is next to the abseil in about thirty seconds, and then zoomed off towards Sgurr na Banachdich, disappearing amongst the rocks.

I said to my partner, "I think I just saw a naked man downclimb the Inn Pin and then run away." He saw it too.

It might have been a shared hallucination had friends of ours who were elsewhere in the Cuillin that day not seen the same guy.

In reply to Emily_pipes:




Maybe it was Killian Jornet on a secret training run for the traverse record attempt!

In reply to Big Ger:

The ambulance crew saud he was poorly equipped. The student disputes this, says he was just cold.

In reply to Lion Bakes:

Gold!! You win the forum.