- Incident
- 53 in 2002
- Type
- Full Callout — Overdue
- Location
- Scafell Pike
Call from Workington Police to advise that a family of adults and two children were overdue, returning from a walk up Scafell Pike. They were last seen on the summit of the Pike at 1700 hrs. in low cloud. Wasdale, Keswick and Ambleside teams were on standby. Wasdale MRT sent a two small groups out to check car parks to locate their cars. The team were just about to change the incident from standby to full callout when the missing group turned up at Taw House farm in Eskdale ( ~ 2100 hrs.) They borrowed a torch from the farmer and set off to their cars located at the Roman fort, half way up Hardknott pass. They were finally intercepted by one of the Wasdale groups, reported safe and well, returned to their cars and the incident stood down. All members were off the hill and back at Gosforth by 2230 hrs. It was interesting to hear that the group had managed to get themselves off the mountain by using the night vision on their camcorder to show the footpath. They had initially used the glow off their mobile phone to pick out the ground but this method was not effective.
(footnote: this was the end of half term week and weather conditions were wintry. The first snow fell this week and some hard nevy and ice was already formed above 800 meters. The earliest snow in Wasdale for 10 years – weather warnings for the weekend)
Incident started at 19:50 and ended at 22:30 making 2.7 hrs in total.
