Where are you headed?

 Every year I tend to post a link to a previous blog- Go outside, sit down. Wait. It's a decent read, even if you've read it before. 

The reason why I'm writing a kind of new/semi-update is because this kind of happened over the weekend and it was simple fortune that the casualty happened to be in a place with some kind of phone signal. 

Backstory: Snow over night. Icy on the ground. A barmy -5 air temp, clear blue skies. A bloke goes out running in the morning on a route he knows well. Tells his wife "where he is going"- and what time he should be back- in about 2 hours. 

40 mins later, the police get a call from the runner with a suspected fractured leg with a short description of what he has run past- though not his exact location, and pass the information on to Mountain Rescue. There is a further vague message, potentially from his wife that he might be on one of the lower level footpaths around here- but that doesn't match the description given by the casualty on the phone.... 

By the time the Mountain Rescue team get a team out of base, he has been sat in the snow (albeit with a foil blanket) for more than an hour. Although it is a bright, clear day, he is not in the sun and is slowly making less and less sense on the phone as he becomes gradually more hypothermic. 

He can answer the phone- but he can't use it to give us a direct location as he doesn't have his glasses with him. Why would he? He's going on a run.

Due to the information passed to us on the phone by the casualty himself, a team was on the hill and with him within 1.5 hours as he was going pretty hypothermic - with a very messed up leg. That's well within the time (2 hours) that his wife would have happily expected him to still be enjoying his run. 

What if he had just gone a bit further up onto the moor before this happened- and then snapped his leg in an area with no signal? 

When does the wife get worried enough to callout mountain rescue if he isn't home in the allotted 2 hours? Immediately? After 2.5? 3?- 

and when she DOES eventually call through- what information do we have? 

That he has gone for a run, potentially along a low level footpath that he wasn't on at all. (mixed messages? misunderstanding of potential route?- who knows)- but by that time, he'll have been in the snow with a snapped leg for 2-4 hours going severely hypothermic in an as yet unknown location.

And if you didn't know already, trauma and hypothermia as a double act are not a good combination. 

Now- I know that sometimes when you head out, you don't know exactly where you are going. Equally, it might be nice to know that people DON'T know exactly where you'll be. 

However, as one of the people that might have to put together a series of vague (sometimes incorrect) clues as to where you might be when you're ovedue/have fallen down a hole that is out of signal and snapped your leg etc. it would be really handy if someone knew at least where you were vaguely intending on going, and when you were planning on being back. 

Note- this is not just for runners- walkers are in the same bracket, and just because you *think* you're carrying more than an average runner in your rucksack, it doesn't make Mountain Rescue come any faster... in fact, you might have told someone you'll be 5-7 hours on the hill... that is a LONG time to wait before being certain that MR have been called.

Where exactly are you planning on going again?!

Whenever I go out I give Lynne a rough plan of where I'm going, what time I'm planning on being back, and a "pull the cord" time- when if she hasn't heard from me- call 999. Chances are, if I'm ok, then I'll have signal *somewhere* and should be able to tell her that I'm ok. If I'm not- then I know that there is a specific time when I *know* that MR have been called. 

If you don't know how to call Mountain Rescue in the UK- it's 999, and ask for Mountain Rescue through the Police. 

It's glorious out there. Enjoy the hills, be safe, have an escape plan, and know when you need to call it in.