makes sure no one is below. How does he know? And how does he know that one of his boulders doesn't dislodge another, to leave it hanging poised on the face, waiting for the weather or the climber to complete the act? And what of all the plants which have taken years to establish themselves on the cliff, to say nothing of the birds' nests, the sheep, all the flora and fauna which are being disturbed, uprooted and killed for a moment's 'sport'?

The trundler jeers at remonstrances until the day that he climbs on a cliff where someone else is trundling. These last are adolescent, criminal, homicidal maniacs; there is no term bad enough.

The decline in the mountaineering spirit shows in sharpest contrast against the spirit of a good team; where thirty men will risk their lives for one, where a body is an empty shell: nothing but weight to be carried, but if a flicker of life remains the corporate will of the team is concentrated for a few hours on preserving it even at the expense of their own. It is against this cool, unthinking selflessness that the irresponsibility of others appears in such contrast.

One often wonders if people - particularly young people (but sometimes older ones who should know better) - realise what they are about in the hills ... the two cyclists, brothers, in shorts and cycling pumps, going straight up the trackless, broken back of Cwm Glas Bach into the cloud, separating, and the younger brother arriving alone at the top. The other was found next day by the R.A.F. He had fallen two hundred feet and died of severe injuries and exposure... A party of six walkers descending from Snowdon summit and deciding to take a short cut. One of the party said afterwards, “from the track at the top it looked easy enough for anyone to go down as it was mostly a grass slope“. (When you look down a slope, you see only the ledges.) One walker fell fifty feet and was killed.

School parties are some of the worst offenders in mountain safety. Too many children are apportioned to one master or mistress. Discipline cannot be maintained. Often the teachers have little experience of mountains themselves even under summer conditions. If bad weather comes - and it can come with alarming suddenness - the children collapse like ninepins.

On May 5th, 1961, the new civilian mountain rescue post at Ogwen Cottage had been involved in sixty-four rescues of which thirty-two concerned young people under instructions. That is schools, scouts, servicemen and boys, and courses from other mountain schools.

One recent example was typical. On a day when the weather was so bad that Ogwen Cottage, who themselves run mountaineering courses, kept their pupils walking in the valleys, a party of about thirty boys and three adults left Capel Curig in the morning to walk to Ogwen over the tops of the Carnedds, a walk that included three mountains of over 3,000 feet. They reached the last: Pen yr Oleu Wen, above the Ogwen Falls, but there the adults lost contact with the boys and were forced to descend to Ogwen for help.

The civilian team went up immediately. They found six boys collapsed between the summit and the road. As the weather improved slightly, three managed to get down without assistance. The other three were stretcher cases.

The mounting number of casualties among young people under instruction was causing considerable alarm by 1960. In many instances the most elementary rules were flouted. A party of schoolchildren in the charge of masters and mistresses were coming down the Fox's Path on Cader Idris when it was realised that they were no longer on the track. They were told to remain where they were until the master in charge had reconnoitred. One boy disobeyed tried to get down a steep buttress, fell and broke his leg. He was carried down by the firemen from Dolgelley sub-unit, assisted by three members of the Valley team who were on an inspection run.

A man and his wife with two boys were descending the east face of Continue to page 3