- Incident
- 6 in 2003
- Type
- Callout — Lost
- Location
- Scafell Pike
- Other Agencies
- Keswick MRT, RAF Boulmer, RAF Leeming MRT, RAF Valley
The Wasdale team leader was called by Keswick MRT to assist with the rescue of two female walkers who were lost, most probably in the corridor area on their way to Scafell Pike. There car was parked at Seathwaite. One of the ladies was reported to have a broken leg. A search through the night until dawn proved unsuccessful even with a number of SARDA dogs and three rescue teams. The search was continued at 0700hrs the following morning with assistance from an additional four rescue teams including the RAF MRT from Leeming, North Yorkshire. Sea King helicopters were brought in from both RAF Valley and RAF Boulmer. The missing persons were spotted early afternoon making their way very slowly towards the bottom of Eskdale by the RAF Boulmer helicopter . They were both suffering from mild hypothermia, one had an injured ankle.
Having left Seathwaite at midday, they had become disorientated in the low cloud on the way up to Scafell Pike in the Esk Hause area. It would appear that they made their way down the stream bed into upper Eskdale where they both slipped on snow, one injuring her hip, the other her leg and arm. The weather conditions were very poor with heavy rain and high winds so they had sheltered. Over 140 MRT rescuers were involved throughout the incident including search dogs and the two helicopters. The two ladies were flown back to Seathwaite and then onto Carlisle Hospital.
Incident started at 18:15.
