At 20.22hrs on Sunday 17th April the Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team was called by Cumbria Police to respond to the possibility of two walkers lost on Helvellyn. Three walkers had set off from Glenridding at around 13.30 to walk up to the summit of Helvellyn.

As they got to Red Tarn one turned back and the others carried on. When the two had not turned up at the car in Glenridding after a reasonable time the third person rang the police to say her friends had not turned up and she was worried about them. Whilst the Duty leader was making enquiries and attempted phone find locators on the two walkers’ mobile phones the full team was put on standby.

After a short time, as enquiries were ongoing, Cumbria Police contacted the team and informed them that the two had turned up safe and well, therefore the team were stood down. The incident lasted around 30 minutes with a quick safe outcome.

The Team’s 2022 incident attendance register records this callout as “Flare at Hartsop”. No further public press-release wording survives in the archive.

On Wednesday 26th January the Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team was called by Cumbria police for two walkers who had become lost descending from Helvellyn. They had found themselves unable to continue in the dark and rang for assistance. Due to the team being up in the Cairngorms for winter training the incident was passed onto the Penrith team who were covering our area .

As they were starting the rescue and gathering the information they were contacted by the police to say the couple had now managed to find their own way down to Patterdale and the main road . The incident took half an hour and we would like to thank Penrith Mountain Rescue for their assistance dealing with the incident enabling us to travel out of the area for training.

Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team was called out after a couple had raised the alarm when they became stuck on Striding Edge. By the time the team made contact they had managed to get onto the Helvellyn plateau. It had gone dark by then and the couple were not confident navigating themselves off the mountain.

The team send 2 Land Rovers and 7 team member made their way up and collected the stranded couple. They were escorted back down the valley and given a lift back to Glenridding in the Land Rover.

At 14.23 hrs on Tuesday 4th January a report was received by the duty leader at Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team that vehicles were stuck on the Kirkstone Pass with possible damage and it was unknown if any injuries had occurred. On liaising with Cumbria Police they requested that the team was mobilised to investigate due to the conditions of the road reported at the time.

The duty leader and one member of the team, who was already at base, attended in a team Landrover. On arrival it was established that one vehicle was stuck on the ice/snow on a steep part of the pass. The council grittier was at the scene and the vehicle was freed and driven onto the summit. A second vehicle had slipped on the ice and unfortunately hit the wall causing damage to this vehicle.

Fortunately there were no injuries and recovery was arranged. The incident took an hour in total with two team members attending. The team would like to remind everyone that the mountain passes can be treacherous at this time of year and often only passable with 4×4 vehicles. Please take care if either on the roads or the fells as it is very icy and slippy at the present time.

Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team was called by Cumbria Police at 17.50 hrs on New Year’s Eve to reports of two males who had requested assistance after becoming lost due to the low cloud and being overcome by darkness. The location of the two men, who were from the West Midlands area, was quickly established using Sarloc to being on the ridge below Nethermost Pike, heading down into the Grisedale valley.

Due to the weather conditions and fading batteries on both of the men’s phones and torches they were asked to stay still and the team would make their way up to them to walk them off. Three small teams were deployed covering the three routes up to the casualties to cover all eventualities. En route, after speaking to the casualty, it was established that they had split up with one walker staying as instructed and the other one heading back up the ridge.

Both men were eventually located and walked down to the valley bottom and conveyed back to Patterdale base . The rescue lasted just under 6 hours with 12 team members being deployed. Thankfully, team members were able to make it home just in time to welcome the new year in with their families.

At 06:47 on Thursday 30th December Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team received a request to assist Wasdale MRT with a search for a man and his 11 year old son who had gone missing after setting out to climb Scarfell the previous day. The search had been started the previous evening.

A vehicle and 4 team members were deployed as a search party on the ground, joining volunteers from many of the other Lake District Teams. Two other team members assisted with strategic coordination and search management. The incident concluded at 11:15 after the missing party managed to made their own way down to Boot.

The Team’s 2021 incident attendance register records this callout as “Shouts reported in Glenamara Park”. It was recorded as a limited callout. No further public press-release wording survives in the archive.

Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team was called out by the Police at 16:50 on Tuesday 02/11/2021 to search for a 54 year old man from Cheshire who was reported missing on Striding Edge. The man and his wife had set off in the early afternoon to climb Helvellyn via Striding Edge; however, on reaching the start of the ridge his wife had decided to stop and had agreed with her husband that he would traverse the Edge and return to her.

When he failed to return, she called the Police. Team members preparing for training later in the evening immediately deployed to the fell to make a hasty search of the Edge and to escort the woman down. Meanwhile, a major search was initiated. Team members were dispatched into Red Tarn basin and Nethermost Cove to search beneath the ridge.

Assistance was requested from the Lake District Mountain Rescue Search Dogs and 5 handlers and their dogs were also deployed to search the terrain beneath the Edge. HM Coastguard were contacted and a SAR helicopter from Humberside equipped with night vision and infra-red search capabilities was deployed. Penrith and Keswick MRT were also called to assist.

At approximately 20:20 a search dog located a body high up at the back of Nethermost Cove. From the injuries sustained it was clear that the man had fallen a significant distance over broken ground. He was confirmed as dead at the scene by a team doctor. 20 members of Penrith MRT were deployed into Nethermost Cove to assist the Patterdale members on scene with the recovery of the body.

Due to the location and the terrain, this was a long and protracted extraction involving multiple fixed belays and ropes to traverse the scree and descend to the floor of the Cove. The body was eventually retrieved to Patterdale Rescue Centre at 02:30 the following morning. The Team would like to extend their condolences to the man’s family and friends and thank Penrith MRT, LDMRSD, Keswick MRT and the HM Coastguard crew for their invaluable assistance.

The incident involved approximately 45 mountain rescue volunteers and lasted about 12 hours. Cumbria Police have appealed for members of the public who may have been witnesses to the events of the Tuesday afternoon to come forwards quoting log number 159 of 02/11/2021.

Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team was called out with regard to 2 young males lost near Cofa Pike in bad weather. The team leader made contact by phone and, with the help of Phonefind technology, was able to talk them down the mountain towards civilisation.

Rescue lasted 1 hr.