Quote Originally Posted by Dog Breath View Post
Of the 18 Fellsmans I've now completed, that has to be by far the coldest. I've had some pretty rough ones over the years, but I don't think I have ever been so cold. I couldn't warm up at all. Even a determined walk up Great Whernside did not generate any heat. I can understand why people got hypothermia, and was probably not far off myself. I know grouping is for safety reasons, but everyone still has to take personal responsibilty and in conditions such as those experienced you get into survival mode. One guy with us had a Petzl Tikka for his torch, which may be OK round the camp site, but up there when you NEED to see where you were going, it was useless. Consequently, we had a lot of standing around in the freezing conditions waiting for him. There weren't too many groups behind as we got through Park Rash before it was abondonned. But the worst point was that 900 metres before Capplestone CP, we waited for him at the stile, and then continued to the CP. We were only walking and he should have been with us but wasn't, and we had to wait 30+ minutes in the freezing conditions before he materialised. We were all getting varying degrees of shudders while we were waiting. The CP staff just told him to get in their tent and sent us on our way. I eventually finished in 19:43 and was my slowest time for many years. I've just about thawed out, but blimey that was a cold one.
Sorry mate but that's a bit of a shocker; you've only got yourself to blame for your 30+min wait. You're right that he should have been better equipped but you lots should have managed it better; kept him in the middle of a close group, nominated a sweeper and rotated the lead.

People are far too cavalier about the grouping system; perhaps the organisers need to lay down the law a bit more about just how to behave in a group. This guy (or any other runner) could easily have tripped and brained himself; you would never have found him and he'd probably be dead right now.

My group consisted of myself (novice) and three guys with over 30 fellsmans between them. As a result they knew the route well and we made good progress. Even so, I still had to restrain the lead runner from stretching the group out too much. It's easy to see runners with head torches on but if they trip and break their torch, suddenly they are an invisible casualty in a featureless landscape.