- Incident
- 45 in 2008
- Type
- Full Callout — Overdue
- Location
- Scafell Pike
- Other Agencies
- Duddon & Furness MRT, HMS Gannet
- Tagged
- Three Peaks
Team paged by the Police to attend to a ‘999’ call for 3 long overdue, Three Peakers and 2 dogs. The 2 males and 1 female (from the Liverpool area) had left Brackenclose at 8.00 p.m. the previous evening and were due back down at 12:30 hrs – Their waiting driver raised the alarm from the pay phone at Wasdale Head Hotel. After discussion on the phone with the acting team leader, a decision was made to leave it until 6:00 hrs to see if they turned up. At 6:13 hrs a limited callout was actioned followed by a full callout at 7:05 hrs – 10 Wasdale team members searched the Wasdale side and in addition 6 members of the Duddon & Furness team were called out to search the Eskdale side of Scafell pike a provide radio relay cover. Later in the morning a Royal Navy Sea King Helicopter was tasked to assist ( they offered to help as they were planning a training exercise that day).The missing group were located between Cam Spout and Mickledore at 10:30 hrs – cloud was down to 1,600 feet. They had made a navigational error and descended into Eskdale via Cam Spout rather than turning right at the Stretcher Box on Mickledore and descending into Wasdale (this is a very common error). After spending much time trying to find a way out they eventually decided to head back up to the summit and it was here they met one of the Wasdale search parties descending into Eskdale. They were walked off the mountain back to Brackenclose. Incident closed at 1.00 p.m. – but see write up for incident which also includes photos of the day
Incident started at 04:11 and ended at 13:00 making 8.8 hrs in total. There were 10 Wasdale team members involved and the incident occured at NY21512 06127 (altitude 548 m). Total rescuer hours: 88