Hikers stranded in snow heavily criticised by local authorities

Hikers, who travelled for walks in the mountains and subsequently found themselves stranded in the snow, have been heavily criticised following the first weekend of 2021. People across the UK were witnessed breaking Covid rules as they travelled for walks in popular areas, with the Peak District, Lake District and Snowdonia providing the main areas of interest for hikers across the UK to travel to.

As the forecast snow fell in these areas, local authorities had to put themselves at risk in order to rescue people that were stranded, while others were simply turned around back home.  

In the Peak District, Derbyshire Police – who made headlines during the first lockdown when they dyed a lake black to deter swimmers – condemned hikers as 60+ cars had to be rescued from Snake Pass due to a vast downpour of snow.  

Speaking on their Facebook page, the Rural Crime Team said, ”We’ll deal with what we can, but our underpants aren’t on the outside and we can only knock so much common sense back into society.

"It seems like many didn’t have the common sense to check the forecast, dress themselves suitably, check they had a capable vehicle, never mind the fact that they perhaps shouldn’t have been stretching the advice given by the government so as not to overburden our NHS."  

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Similarly, it took three hours for Cheshire Police Rural Crime Team to rescue nine cars containing 22 people who also had been left stranded by the snow. Of the nine cars, “all except one car was from out of Cheshire.

"Sadly these people have put all of us at risk today.”

Elsewhere, in the Lake District, a man with minimal climbing equipment found himself stuck on a crag after encountering icy conditions. An operation to rescue the man was devised by the Coniston Mountain Rescue Team, involving 17 volunteers who all put themselves at risk amid the pandemic.

After the incident, the team took to Facebook to vent their frustrations: “people travelling to walk and climb in the Lake District are putting lives at risk, and not just their own. If you have the virus and have to be rescued every member of the rescue party will have to isolate for 10 days. This will prevent those team members from coming to the aid of other people in distress."

As is now the case in England with the newly imposed lockdown, exercise must begin and end at your house when living in Wales, with non-essential travel being banned. North Wales Police warned the public not to travel to Snowdonia, with many being turned away so as not to put others at risk.