- Incident
- 39 in 2000
- Type
- Callout — Overdue
- Location
- Scafell Pike
- Other Agencies
- Lake District Mountain Rescue Search Dogs
Call from the Whitehaven Police at about 1715 hrs concerning a single 43 yr old man who was long overdue on Scafell Pike. The informant was at Wasdale Head. The man (from the North East) had last been seen near the summit at about 1535 hrs. when he became separated from his colleague. He did not have a map with him and we were given information about his previous medical history which gave us cause for concern. With incident 48 below, we now had two incidents on the go. A full team callout was completed and we used the remaining nine team members and one search dog to start the normal search routes onto Scafell Pike. We received early reports of a single light seen to be descending the fell slowly so we held off bringing further search teams into play until we had confirmation on whether it was our missing person. Unfortunately, at 2130 hrs we got confirmation that it wasn’t. More search dogs were called but at about 2200 hrs. The missing person turned up safe and well, having taken a difficult descent route down the wrong side of Scafell Pike via Cam Spout. He met up with another couple of walkers from Langdale who were also lost and they all walked out via Brotherilkeld, Eskdale. A local farmer agreed to transport the couple back to Langdale and then brought the missing person back to Wasdale Head. All the search parties on the hill were recalled and the Gosforth Base closed at 2345 hrs.
Incident started at 17:15 and ended at 23:45 making 6.5 hrs in total.