Extreme gardening on Helvellyn

On Thursday 18/08/22 at around 12:00hrs the Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team was called out with a report that 2 people and a dog were stuck on the Helvellyn headwall. The concerned walker who raised the alarm had been descending Swirral edge in wet weather, when he saw 2 people and a barking dog high up on the Helvellyn headwall.

The headwall is steep and there are no footpaths and normally only accessible by climbers. The walker observe them for about 15mins and became increasingly concerned as they weren’t moving and did not respond to him shouting up to get their attention. Two rescue team members walked up to investigate and whilst ascending towards Red Tarn they met 2 men and a yappy dog.

It turned out they worked for the John Muir trust and had been on the headwall planting rare arctic-alpine plants. We like a good ending! The John Muir trust do great work looking after the Glenridding common, re-establishing rare plants and mountain woodland species as well as loads of other conservation work. Check out their important work in the Ullswater Valley and around the UK.