Hypothermic walker among trio rescued from Snowdon

Three people were rescued from Snowdon after getting into trouble on the Pyg track.One of the three, who were all medical students from London, was evacuated by stretcher with hypothermia before being taken to the Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor.Twenty members of the Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team were involved in the operation, which took more than four hours.

Blencathra fall victim named

Police today named the man who died after a fall from Sharp Edge on Blencathra.He was Alan Sharples, aged 60, from Lancaster.

Pooh bridge footpath must be cleared, say planners

A developer has vowed to fight moves to make him remove an equestrian sand school blocking a path leading to the famous Pooh Sticks Bridge immortalised by author AA Milne.The local council says equestrian centre owner Ben Van Praagh has breached the terms of the original planning permission, and the sand school must be taken up.Pooh Sticks Bridge, in Ashdown Forest, near Hartfield, East Sussex, is the setting for the game played by Christopher Robin’s fictional animal friends Pooh and Piglet in the classic tale The House at Pooh Corner.

Cairn Gorm poo chute a success, say rangers

Cairn Gorm’s poo chute is helping keep the mountain clean, as the winter season gets underway.Mountaineers, many of whom bivvy in snow holes on the tops, were asked to use the facility, rather than burying human waste, the volumes of which were starting to cause problems in the fragile arctic wilderness of the mountain’s summit plateau.The poo chute was set up in November last year so walkers and climbers could seal their waste in specially designed bags and bottles and dispose of them in the tube, which was set up in the Cairngorm Ski Area car park.

Estate owner's grant cut after poisoning case

A landowner whose gamekeeper was convicted of trying to kill protected birds of prey has had his farm subsidy cut.The Scottish Executive has lopped nearly £8,000 from the European grant due to James McDougal, who employed George Aitken on his Borders estate near the Southern Upland Way.Aitken placed dead pheasants containing poison along with traps holding live pigeons on the moorland at Lauder in Berwickshire.

Campaigners' thumbs-down to Devon windfarms

Conservation campaigners have backed objectors to two windfarm applications in north Devon.Two separate companies are seeking permission to build wind turbines close to the sites of other planned windfarms.

Ill equipped walker rescued from Devil's Kitchen

An operation involving 40 north Wales rescuers yesterday had a happy outcome.Members of the Ogwen Valley and Llanberis Mountain Rescue teams spent 2½ hours searching for a 66-year-old man who had become separated from his walking partners.He was found near the Twll Du or Devil’s Kitchen, between Y Garn and Glyder Fawr, overlooking the Ogwen Valley.

Retailer Blacks sheds jobs as profits disappoint

Outdoor retailer Blacks has announced plans to shed up to 60 jobs at its Northampton headquarters following worse-than-expected profits.Despite the Blacks chain posting sales 5.4 per cent up on last year, and its sister shops Millets selling even more – at 7.8 per cent up – its share price fell 10p to 150p on news that its ‘surf’ brands Freespirit and O’Neill had been hit by poor sales.Blacks Leisure, the parent company, issued a post-Christmas profit warning and said it would need to cut £3m from its costs.

Rescuers on exercise find injured Munro walker

An unconscious walker was found by chance by a Scottish mountain rescue team on a training exercise.The team, from RAF Kinloss, was on Sgorr Ruadh in Glen Carron, Wester Ross, when they discovered the man, who had fallen.