101 uses for a mobile!

[Fellhound]

I was with a close friend when he passed away a couple of years ago and still get flash backs about the events that night. The one thing that has kept me sane is the knowledge that we did everything we could have done to help him. I hope the people posting flippant comments on here are never in a similiar situation

Richard, I am truly sorry to hear about your friend but that doesn't alter the wider issue here. In 1999 I fell over 100 feet from Sharp Edge and suffered multiple injuries. The most life-threatening of these was internal bleeding in the chest cavity (haemo-thorax?). A walker on the ridge called mountain rescue on their mobile phone and thus probably saved my life (I had almost a litre of blood in the thorax when I arrived by helicopter at the Carlisle hospital - a very-nearly fatal amount). Despite this I'm STILL opposed to the compulsory carrying of mobiles in fell races!

Adventure, self-sufficiency and an element of risk are central to this sport. Anyone (especially those who work in safety circles) knows that the very top of the hierarchy of risk control is elimination. So, if you want to get rid of the risk don't go out in the hills! Obviously, in our sport a balance has to be struck but I think the word used by Luv Shack is a good one - OVERKILL!

[IanDarkpeak]

Adventure, self-sufficiency and an element of risk are central to this sport. !

Agreed but carrying a phone won't stop any of that. Only the response time to help will improve if it all goes pear shaped.

I used to race dingies to high level and in a big wind this was very scary, but there were safety boats about. But it didn't detract from the potential danger of risk.

I'm sorry to hear about any accident but my wife has just asked what would your family think if there hadn't been a phone nearby after your incident. It's not just our lives it effects.

[Fellhound]

It's not just our lives it effects.

Of course that's true, and a lot of lives have undoubtedly been ruined by a loved one getting involved in something risky and subsequently being killed, but we cannot eliminate risk from life, we have to strike a balance.

Risk sports have been growing in popularity ever since the victorians discovered the thrill of fear and I think they are set to continue, despite the nannying of the Health & Safety state (of which I am a part). There is however a huge difference between being expected to take a risk as part of your employment and doing it, calculatedly, as part of your leisure activities.

You are actually MUCH more likely to be killed driving to work than you are running in a fell race but our families accept this risk as somehow justified or inescapable, when in actual fact it is those kind of risks we should be trying to eliminate from our lives - not the trivial risk of running in the Edale Skyline race!

And I apologise for this being a heavy subject for Christmas Eve ... I'm off for a pint (carefully)

[IanDarkpeak]

after a few G&T's, a bottle of Red and some port.

Risk sports have been growing in popularity ever since the victorians discovered the thrill of fear and I think they are set to continue, despite the nannying of the Health & Safety state (of which I am a part). There is however a huge difference between being expected to take a risk as part of your employment and doing it, calculatedly, as part of your leisure activities.

I totally agree, threres no value to life with out the risk of death, and if you've ever seen the scene in Forest gump when they go out in to the hurricane in there boat then thats what I was like in my dinghy-come on bring it on
I still like to get gripped on an ice climb or on a big hill,but then I'm only responsible for me and maybe my crew/rope buddy not 500 runners.

Got to go now I can hear santa's sleigh on the roof and if i don't go to sleep he won't deliver. merry chrismas. ian

[peateater]

( First ever post - welcome all !)

It seems to me that making a mobile compulsory on fell races is completely against the spirit of self reliance that makes ours such a light-touch sport for individualists. If this goes unchecked, then they could become a standard item in kit checks and our sport would be the poorer for it. If you've ever talked to someone lost on the moors who haven't a clue where they are (in the unlikely event of a signal), you get some idea of the limitations of mobiles and an understanding of what 'false sense of security' means in practise!
As a long serving mountain rescue member I've noticed a growing trend where people who would once have got themselves out of situations (like being simply lost, in good weather) now rely on mobiles to call for help.
This situation looks like a knee jerk reaction to last year's extreme weather on the 'Skyline race , perhaps a better 'safety ' solution would be to alter races to suit the conditions eg bad weather alternative/ shortened courses.

[Wheeze]

Great first post Peateater!
Managed to sum up the nubbins of this thread very well.

Advisory yes. Compulsory no. Clear message there I think.

[Swoop]

If anyone hasn't got a mobile why not wait until the mobile library comes round next week and borrow one?

[Ady In Accy]

Wonder if anyone dresses up as a phone at Rawtenstall tommoz?

[Stolly]

( First ever post - welcome all !)

If you've ever talked to someone lost on the moors who haven't a clue where they are (in the unlikely event of a signal), you get some idea of the limitations of mobiles and an understanding of what 'false sense of security' means in practise!

A few years ago (maybe before the M60 became a full loop of Manchester), my wife rang me on one of her hugely dangerous solo car trips to John Lewis in Cheadle - she'd got onto 'a motorway' and hadn't a clue where she was, what direction she was travelling in and where she was going. I didn't have a clue how to help her either and really couldn't understand her garbled descriptions of where she'd gone, having left John Lewis (yes she'd got there okay, presumably guided by some kind of shopping homing beacon). She made it back eventually but no thanks to the mobile.

[stringman]

FRA rules clearly state that in addition to stipulated mandatory kit, the organiser has the power to request runners to carry additional items as he deems fit.

I'm organising a couple of races next year where I will insist you all carry a fruit flan.

We will be kit checking at the start and finish.

SM