LETTING a group of young people loose in a wilderness is supposed to be character building, but try telling that to the lost teenager up to his knees in a snow drift on pitch-black moorland.

This week's incident, which saw two teenage schoolgirls swept away while trying to ford a swollen beck near Settle in the Yorkshire Dales, brought back traumatic memories of a an Outward Bound challenge in the 1970s.

As part of a party of pupils from a school near Newcastle, I was taken by Land Rover to a field centre deep in the wilds of the Northumberland National Park.

Aged 17, our group had absolutely no idea of what lay ahead of us. A week later we didn't know what had hit us.

For a start, it was January, and the now-flooded Kielder Valley was a freezing cold, tree-filled snowy wilderness.

Kitted out in ill-fitting borrowed boots and cagoules we were put through a punishing schedule of rough terrain route marches and orienteering, with what seemed at the time the minimal amount of teacher supervision.

At first it was a bit of a laugh but after three days of struggling through snow and waking up in our tents in a state of complete exhaustion, some of us started to get panicky.

The final straw was when we were split into small groups - given the names of famous British explorers - and sent out to navigate our way around a difficult route over boggy, snowy moorland.

When we got above a certain point a blizzard set in, and you could hardly see your hand in front of your face.

Somehow we managed to stagger back to our base, helping each other, and guided by campfires.

One group was several hours late and when they finally made it - by flagging down a forestry vehicle miles away from where they should have been - they were near collapse.

Maybe the teachers were always fully in control, but it certainly didn't seem so. We were lucky, but I would like to think any child of mine going through a similar experience was closely supervised so safety was never an issue