The Team were called in by Workington Police to search for two missing male walkers in their early twenties who were described as vulnerable. A party of nine had set off from Brotherilkeld with their leader to climb Scafell. After reaching the summit, a navigational error put the group at the top of Broad Stand. The leader had wisely decided not to descend but retrace his steps back up to the summit ridge. Although mid April, the Lake District was experiencing pretty nasty winter conditions and there was fresh, snow on the ground above 2000 foot and cloud down to 1000 feet Once the group were back on the ridge there was a dispute and two of them walked off and left the leader with a dilemma. As a result the team were called in and search parties were sent in from both sides of Scafell. Fortunately, two walkers descending, high on the flank of Scafell on the Wasdale side were seen by one team member, approached and quickly identified as the missing pair. The two walkers were reassured and safely walked back down to the vehicles at Brackenclose and driven back to Gosforth to wait for their colleagues who were descending back to their vehicle in Eskdale. When the Wasdale vehicles arrived back in Gosforth, one of the two missing walkers became very agitated and irrational and decided to head off into the surrounding countryside, quickly followed by a small group of team members. They eventually caught up with the individual and the situation brought under control. In order to bring the situation to a final safe conclusion, Police back up was requested. After a bit of post rescue ‘sorting out’, the incident was closed at around 10.00 pm. There were approximately 20 team members involved in the rescue. Grateful thanks to our local police for their support.
Incident started at 18:01 and ended at 22:00 making 4 hrs in total. There were 20 Wasdale team members involved. Total rescuer hours: 80
