Incident
1 in 2002
Type
Location
Unknown Location

Call to assist an overdue party. A father and 16 year old son had left Brotherilkeld at the bottom of Hardknott Pass to walk up Eskdale and over to Wasdale, with a planned overnight camp. Having made good time they phoned his wife at 1500 hrs. from the summit of the Pike and said they would continue down to the Wasdale Head Hotel and stay at the hotel. They failed to turn up and by 2200hrs the wife raised the alarm. A group of 4 Wasdale MRT rescuers spent the night searching the key routes to the summit of the Pike and by 0510hrs returned to base. The missing couple were well equipped. It was a very cold night it was very clear.
The following morning a RAF helicopter was brought in to check the normal walk out routes. The missing walkers were located making their way back up to Mickledore after spending the night under canvas at the bottom of Cam Spout on the Eskdale side. They had made an all to common navigational error and turned south at the Mickledore stretcher box instead of north. They were safely returned to Wasdale Head.

Incident started at 22:00.

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