Upper Eskdale – Mon 18th Oct 2004

Incident

52 in 2004

Type

Alert —

Location

Upper Eskdale

This story is being reported here, not as an official incident, but to give recognition to those walkers who make their own way off the mountain rather than just call the rescue teams. The team leader and a friend were out for a scramble on Scafell when they came across a 70 year old man on the Foxes Tarn descent route. The man from Lancashire, had been dropped off at Boot, Eskdale by his wife and was heading for the Band on Bowfell to be picked up again at Old Dungeon Gill, Langdale. He had taken a fall but was alright and was slowly making his way down. Noting the lateness of the day, that he was moving slowly and that he did not have a light the Team Leader decided to walk down to Sampson’s Stones with him (Upper Eskdale), lend him a torch and see him safely on his way across to Three Tarns.When the Team Leader got home he called the leader of the Langdale Ambleside team to advise that the guy would be making his way down in the dark but was fine. If there were calls made to the police for whatever reason then at least he would know about the person and intended route. Nothing further happened until early the next morning when the man’s wife phoned the police to say she was worried about him being so overdue. Shortly after the wife’s call to the Police, the man phoned his wife on the mobile to say he was safely on his way down. He eventually got down safely the next day and called the Team leader to thank him for the loan of the torch and to explain the events of the previous day.He had made his way to Green Hole (at the top of Eskdale), worked his way up and into the crags and mist and lost his route. Recognising that he would not get off the mountain that night, he descended to a safe area and phoned his wife to say that he would not be down to meet her that night but not to worry as he was happy to find a place to sleep in the shelter of the rocks. At first light he started back up but was unable to call his wife on the mobile to reassure her due to no signal. She had started to worry about his condition again in the morning when she had not heard from him so called the police. He called her as soon as he got a signal and then made his way down the Band. A story with a happy ending. He was well equipped ( apart from having to borrow a torch from the Wasdale Team Leader) and is a good example of how some walkers are quite hardy when it comes to looking after themselves, even at the grand age of 70!Thanks for the story Julian.