- Incident
- 163 in 2026
- Type
- Full Callout — Overdue
- Location
- Upper Eskdale
- Weather
- Cold, Windy
- Other Agencies
- Coastguard, Cockermouth MRT, Cumbria Police, Duddon & Furness MRT, Keswick MRT, Langdale Ambleside MRT, Rescue 899 from Prestwick
- Tagged
- Overdue, PhoneFind
Cumbria Police received a call from a concerned mother reporting that her son was overdue from a walk on Scafell Pike. The Team Leader carried out initial enquiries but could not locate him using PhoneFind. His last known position was Taylor Gill Force at 10:30, which left a very large possible search area. Several teams were asked to carry out hasty searches across the Wasdale area.
At 02:40, Duddon & Furness MRT spotted a flashing head torch and found the man in the Upper Esk. He had been sitting there since 18:00 wearing all his spare clothing. His phone and power bank had both run flat, so he had no way to call for help. He was very cold and exhausted. The team assessed him, warmed him up and requested an immediate evacuation. Coastguard Rescue 912 (Humberside) was deployed and flew the casualty and the Duddon & Furness team members down the valley. Because the search area was so large, the team had already begun planning for a second day and had asked regional Silver command to start organising more resources. Thankfully, these were not needed.
Many thanks to Duddon and Furness Mountain Rescue Team, Keswick Mountain Rescue Team, Langdale Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team (LAMRT) and Cockermouth Mountain Rescue Team, and to Maritime and Coastguard Agency Rescue 899 (Prestwick) and Rescue 912, for their help with this search.
Incident started at 22:16 and ended at 07:34 making 9.3 hrs in total. There were 12 Wasdale team members involved and the incident occured at NY 21700 07184. Total rescuer hours: 112
