As six die in snow, is this family the daftest in Britain?

By Paul Sims

'Crazy': The family climbing Snowdon yesterday


As the snow fell and the temperature around them dipped below freezing they ignored the repeated warnings and began climbing.

Trudging through several inches of snow, the couple struggled on as the blizzard-like conditions hit Snowdonia, North Wales, with a vengeance.

But what made their attempt even more unthinkable was the fact that they chose to take their young daughter with them.

She cannot have been any more than two years old. Yet she sat in a harness on her father's back with only a plastic cover protecting her face from the arctic conditions that surrounded them.

One walker said: 'I couldn't believe they had even contemplate going out in those conditions. It was like a blizzard up there with 30-35mph winds and poor visibility.

'The chances of falling over and crushing the child or falling down a ledge is ten times more likely in these conditions. It was nothing short of crazy.'

The couple left their car at Pen-y-pass, then started to walk up the snow-covered miners' track, which leads towards the 3,560ft summit of Snowdon.


Showing grit: Clearing a road near the M62 in Yorkshire yesterday


Elfyn Jones, chairman of Llanberis mountain rescue team, said: 'I hope they're not heading towards the summit or going high up the mountain, because there are gale force winds and temperatures down to minus 4 or 5.'

Last week police and rescuers launched a special campaign to persuade climbers and walkers to take proper precautions.

The couple returned to their car a little over two hours later, having walked approximately a mile up the mountain.

The climb occurred on a day of tragedy as the weather wreaked havoc across the country and left a total of six people dead.

Three men were killed in a car crash on the M62 in West Yorkshire and two climbers, one from Wiltshire and one from Wales, died in an avalanche on Ben Nevis.

The avalanche was the first of three to hit the Scottish Highlands.

The second in Torridon, Wester Ross, claimed the life of a 53-year-old climber from Derbyshire. He had been found alive but died later from internal injuries in hospital.

Two other walkers were rescued from the third avalanche in Argyll.

As temperatures plummeted to as low as 3f (–16c) walkers had been warned about the dangers caused by the recent snowfalls.

The men killed in the car crash in West Yorkshire were aged 31, 24, and 27.

They are believed to be from the Preston area and were in a Mitsubishi saloon car when it left the westbound carriageway of the snow-hit M62 near Huddersfield and collided with the nearside barrier on Tuesday evening.

In Cumbria, the treacherous weather led to a seven car pile-up on the A66, closing a stretch of the road and leaving up to 50 other cars stranded Dorothy Watson, 59, was among those stranded in her car on the A66 last night.

She said: 'We've been here for a couple of hours now. It's been snowy, but the problem today was the wind. The wind was really strong and it was blowing the snow off the hillsides.'


Sheep are covered in snow in the Hope Valley near Buxton, Derbyshire


Heavy snowfall on the A672 between Halifax, West Yorkshire and Oldham caused cars to be abandoned and roads closed


source: dailymail