Norman Kember-honourable and brave or a bit of a pompous arse??

[moondog]

I'm plumping for the latter.....

I do find these people who go potholing in severe weather conditions very odd.

Again, no insurance to cover them for the cost!

(But lots of local rescue groups aren't actually taxpayer funded, they're voluntary)

maybe we should insure ourselves as a nation in case our leaders turn into prize autocratic twats...

oh now moondog - I DO agree with you about the Snowdon family!!! unbelievable!

oh now moondog - I DO agree with you about the Snowdon family!!! unbelievable!

doubly so

discussing NK on Jonathan Dimbleby now

God I hadn't noticed that news item about kids up snowden. Why would anyone take such young children up a mountain in this weather? Call me an over-protective, paranoid parent...

not only that Cal - when the weather worsened did they turn back? did they heck, they carried on upwards *ankers!

People like this have always been a mystery to me.

But some would call me risk averse, cautious, stifling my kid's sense of adventure, etc. D'you remember that mountaineer who was a mother and died up a mountain and there was a big controversy about whether she was selfish and irresponsible or a shining example of the possiblities of humanity? I can see both arguments, but I wouldn't bother to go up mountains myself. In fact, I can barely bring myself to walk down to Tesco's for the newspaper at the moment...

In some US states, and on some particular peaks (Denali in Alasak, Rainier in Washington state, for example), people are now charged for rescue services if they are deemed to have taken unnecessary risks - like deciding to stroll up a 14,000 peak in trainers with nothing but jeans and a cotton tshirt on.

You take out 'rescue insurance'.

I kid you not.

In some parks, it got little short of ridiculous, with people using mobiles to phone Mountain Search and Rescue b/c they were tired and wanted off, getting onto peaks whilst intoxicated, b/c they'd lost their dog, etc.

These rescues are risky and cost a fortune.

I knew plenty of people who worked with SARS and the tales they can tell really reinforce 'truth is stranger than fiction'.

i'm glad to see this thread, I mentioned in a thread just after he was captive, that his spokespeople did not seem to thank his rescuers, and not many people agreed, his thanks came too late and was a bit forced imo, so i'm with the pompous arse brigade

meant rescued not captive!

That was Alison Hargreaves, Caligula, and she was by far the best female British climber in years and an amazing woman.

She was married to a former climber who was also a stay at home dad and fully supported Alison's need to express herself through her sport.

The attack she got in the press after her death, along w/her American climbing partner, Rob Slater, was little short of shocking, given the scores of male climbers who are fathers and die under similar circumstances. Not a peep of vitriol about their having climbed after fatherhod. As if they're not as important as a mother somehow.

The two guides who perished on Everet in that massive kerfuffle, for example, Scott Fisher and Rob Hall, were both fathers to young children - well, Rob Hall never saw his daughter, as his wife was 7 months pregnant when he died.

Oh yes that was her. She was a mystery to me. But so are all those other climbers, male or female. And pot holers.

I have a friend who went climbing in the Alps for her honeymoon. Wierd.

The potholers were just numpties who give all people who enjoy the mountains a bad name.

Alison Hargreaves was a real climber. A really, really talented one, too.

Do what I did Cal re paper. Go in your pyjamas.
I did (to corner shop).Kids too. They thought it was great.

Yes Expat,agree with your commnets on H.
I read a long interview with her dh about a month or so ago.

well I like walking up a mountain (not huge ones you understand) but if I needed ropes and belays and all that fancy stuff - forget it, it has to have a proper path.

Quite. Walking shoes and a wooly is the maximum equipment I'd invest in.

Pompous arse.

Are the things mutualy exclusive? Can be not be honerable and brave and at the same time being daft and pompous?

Not impossible?

good point mb!

like terry waite

Today's Observer headline on NK 'Was I foolhardy or rational? Now I need time to reflect.'

Maybe we'll see a headline from TB pondering that - what's the odds .................

Yes ruty.
I am looking forward to reading it once it dries out.
My children dropped it in a puddle.