Family of 6 rescued from Houndkirk Moor

[mike142sl]

I hope this was not one of our number, but the local mountain rescue were called out yesterday to recover a family of 6 from Houndkirk Moor.

They had been sledging and decided to go home via Houndkirk in their Land Rover. If ever there was a bad decision when the normal roads were impassable.  :roll:

[dxmedia]

They will have only got about 50m down the lane then from the fox house end. The drifts are far too deep.

Hardly a need to call mountain rescue  :roll: :roll: :roll: Walk to the large pub which is about 10 minutes and clearly visible and call a taxi with your tail between your legs.
Maybe a knock on the outdoor pursuits center at the bottom of the lane and see if one of their 110's would be so kind as to pull them out.

If they were at the ringinglow end, then from where the drifts make it impassible at the top of Lady Cannings plantation, it's about a 10 minute walk to the Norfolk Arms and again a taxi.  They wouldn't have been able to get any further up the lane than that from both ends, it's impassible.

Hope they get charged with wasting mountain rescue's time IMO, unless of course one of the party was injured / diabled in which case totally different matter.

Oh the locals sledge on the hill at the ringinglow end of houndkirk on the field directly opposite the end of the land (across the road), so if they were sledging there, they were local, and knew where the pubs were.  :roll: :roll:

[andyhubbard]

They were not local and in the driver's own words ''we'd been sledging and decided to go for a drive in the snow''?, they were stuck there for 3 hours. I hope it's no one on here because i was not with the mountain rescue team but was on standby close by to assist with a local doctor,this as we were coming towards the end of a ten hour shift and yes i'm supposed to pass judgement but watching some of the idoits at the weekend started to get very annoying .
People really need to take notice that if it says the road is closed it means just that,rant over.

[jay2578]

you mountain rescue guys and gals do a sterling job, but people who abuse the service through their own stupidity should be made to pay a fee/make a substantial donation which would maybe make them think twice about "going for a drive in the snow"

[Disco Matt]

Time and again it seems to come down to non-locals getting into trouble (happens on Snowdon and the Beacons a fair bit too).

"Going for a drive in the snow" is fine if you know the area well and have another vehicle or two handy in case you need it. In event of one of you getting bellied out on a drift, the truck behind can tow you out or at least get everyone home. Just treat it like a laning trip but with more food and clothing.

Going out solo in an area that is being widely reported as having major snow problems is just daft, however!

[jay2578]

we have the same problem up here with "tourists" going into the hills and not realising that at 2000ft the weathers totally different, but what can ya do? shoot the tourists!

[Saffy]

but what can ya do? shoot the tourists!
[/quote]

only they ones that bring their own food and drink and leave their wallets at home - you need the others

[Lucy1978]

Saturday you could get a lot further than Lady Cannings, to about 1km from where it joins the road north of Fox House before I got stuck.  A little work with the spade and a push from a couple of lads who were out scoping for sledging spots saw me free though. 

[rollazuki]

Surely the main aim of mountain rescue is to recover people/climbers/ramblers who have got into difficulty.....?
In this case, a family stuck out in the snow would be the same as a climber who  has had a fall.....(climbers fault, no-one forced hime to climb)

If they were unaware how close the pub was, or if the kids were getting too cold, why would you not call for help?

To us they look like dumbasses, they probably didnt realise the severity of the situation.
To me a hiker stuck out in the peak needing rescue is also a dumbass(should have gone in a 4x4) but to the hiking fraternity, hes isnt.

at least they were trying to get some 4x4 fun.


PS, I did houndskirk moor the other night in my Jimny(wasnt really tough at all) LOL.

[mike142sl]

Saturday you could get a lot further than Lady Cannings, to about 1km from where it joins the road north of Fox House before I got stuck.  A little work with the spade and a push from a couple of lads who were out scoping for sledging spots saw me free though. 

We had a BIG drop of snow on Sat night and Sunday though, when this chap was out sledging with his family. Plus you went during the day when others were out there to give you a hand.

[dxmedia]

Surely the main aim of mountain rescue is to recover people/climbers/ramblers who have got into difficulty.....?
In this case, a family stuck out in the snow would be the same as a climber who  has had a fall.....(climbers fault, no-one forced hime to climb)

If they were unaware how close the pub was, or if the kids were getting too cold, why would you not call for help?

To us they look like dumbasses, they probably didnt realise the severity of the situation.
To me a hiker stuck out in the peak needing rescue is also a dumbass(should have gone in a 4x4) but to the hiking fraternity, hes isnt.

at least they were trying to get some 4x4 fun.


PS, I did houndskirk moor the other night in my Jimny(wasnt really tough at all) LOL.

Cat get's stuck up a tree - do you call the firebrigade?  To the owner of the cat it's a life and death thing. To onlookers it's a waste of the services time.


Boils down to that thing of dont go laning alone. He'd driven (by the sounds of it) from ringinglow, it's only a mile or so away. He and his family could have walked back. You know the area you know it's not far.

TBH other than pride, there's nothing to be lost leaving a truck on the lane, staying over night in either pub at both end's of the lane (I can recommend staying in the norfolk arms ;) ) and trying again the next day.


A climber falling, a walker twisting their ankle, they are very valid reasons to call on the mountain rescue. Because you cant be arsed walking for 30 minutes (maximum) because it's a little cold, that's taking the [throw it].


Oh which day did you do houndkirk on and it wasn't that tough?  Can't have been the same day I was pulling people out from the fox house end due to the drifts being a couple of feet deep, since there were no tracks through the snow ;)

[Disco Matt]

I always wonder if some of these cases are due to people simply having no idea of what to do if they go out of their normal world. Example, a recent case involving someone falling in a waterfall as a result of quite probably being drunk and stoned saw witnesses saying things along the lines of "the ground was uneven and there were no warning signs"

Well of course not you twit, it's a waterfall! Generally most people have the sense to stay away from the edge!

For whatever reason we seem to have ended up in a state where large numbers of people simply can't cope with anything beyond their daily commute. They lack the knowledge (not necessarily experience, if you've learned the theory and put it to use you'll probably be ok) to deal with a situation where there is no chance of somebody arriving to pick them up and send them on their way, and where their actions can have fatal consequences if they make the wrong choice. In this case, what's the betting that they had never been stuck before and hadn't much of an idea of the limitations of their vehicle? No 4x4 is infallible and a frozen snow-covered moor isn't the place to find the limits, least of all if you lack a backup vehicle.

[V8MoneyPit]

I can't comment specifically on this case because I don't know the circumstances beyond what I've read. But it does sound like they were ill prepared for the conditions. With basic kit, they might have been able to extract themselves.

When my son and I drove to Scotland after Christmas, we drove over the Yorkshire Dales. The first road we tried to get over to Swaledale was getting to around 12" of virgin snow. We stopped and talked with some walkers who told us it was deeper ahead so we turned round and found an alternative route. Had we been with a second vehicle we might have tried to go further. But..... we had sleeping bags, warm clothing, a shovel, a stove to make hot drinks, chocolate as high energy food (OK, I carry chocolate everywhere  :lol:) and extra fuel. Even if we had become stuck, we were prepared to extract ourselves or keep ourselves safe.

Many people under estimate the British weather and they would probably have laughed at what we were carrying. But I'd rather be laughed at and alive than stuck and cold on a moor somewhere.

[denviks]

i always carry the right gear for the weather.or try to....

but correct me if i am wrong............isnt the official advice if you get stuck in bad cold weather to stay with your vehicle if at all possible and call the emergency services?

i thought that was always the advice given?

[dxmedia]

i always carry the right gear for the weather.or try to....

but correct me if i am wrong............isnt the official advice if you get stuck in bad cold weather to stay with your vehicle if at all possible and call the emergency services?

i thought that was always the advice given?

Very sound advice. Don't underestimate how close these people were to civilization though.

This is the lane in question. To the west the building is a very large and well lit pub, to the east, just north of the wood is the other pub in question. About 2 miles down the road is Sheffield.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=ringinglow&sll=53.335768,-1.576538&sspn=0.013992,0.038581&ie=UTF8&radius=0.8&rq=1&ev=p&hq=ringinglow&hnear=&ll=53.337228,-1.579242&spn=0.013991,0.038581&t=h&z=15