Dad criticized for carrying 2-year-old up mountain in bad weather (Snowdon Mountain, North Wales, United Kingdom)

UNNAMED DAD has been criticized for carrying a 2-year-old child to the top of Snowdon Mountain in North Wales in horrible weather--60 mph winds and driving rain. The child apparently showed signs of hypothermia when rescued.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/north_west/8231524.stm

Criticism over child on Snowdon

Mountain rescuers have criticised a father who carried a two-year-old child to the top of Snowdon in bad weather.

Rescuers said the child was believed to have been showing signs of hypothermia.

Gale force winds of 60mph and driving rain had forced the cancellation of the train carrying visitors to the cafe on the summit on bank holiday Monday.

But coincidentally the train was taking goods to the cafe, and it was able to bring the parents and their youngster, all from Manchester, down to safety.

Mountain rescuers said that helped to avert a potential tragedy.

Mountain rescuers said the father had carried his child, in a back-pack, up the highest peak in Wales, at 3,560 ft (1,085 m), in appalling weather.

When the weather is so bad, with winds of 60mph and heavy rain, then a little common sense could come into it too

"The father had carried the two-year-old up the Snowdon Ranger path to the top of Snowdon," Llanberis Mountain Rescue team chairman Elfyn Jones, said on BBC Radio Cymru's Post Prynhawn programme.

"It is almost unbelievable when you consider what the weather was like."

He added that without the train the consequences could have been "extremely serious for such a small child".

He said that people should take more responsibility for their actions.

"They should be better prepared, and check the weather forecast.

"When the weather is so bad, with winds of 60mph and heavy rain, then a little common sense could come into it too," he added.

Jonathan Tyler, from the Snowdon Mountain Railway, said the weather had meant only a partial service was run on Sunday, and trips were totally suspended on Monday due to "gale force winds".

It also meant that the cafe, Hafod Eryri, which was opened earlier this summer, was closed.

However the company had sent up one locomotive, without carriages, to reach three members of staff who sleep at the summit building during the summer.

The fact it was available to help the child was "sheer coincidence", although he said the company always tried to help with rescues if possible.

"It was very lucky the staff were there (at the summit) as the decision had nearly been taken to abandon the building earlier in the day because of the conditions," said Mr Tyler.

• Other rescues on Snowdon over the weekend included that of a 33-year-old woman who fell on Saturday, at Bwlch Llanberis. Rescuers said she was properly equipped.

On Sunday, a group of nine were rescued after they became lost, and one fell unconscious due to the effects of hypothermia. They were taking part in a three peaks challenge, and rescuers said they were not well prepared.