The team recently congratulated Penny Kirby on reaching the fantastic milestone of 40 years as a member of Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team. The story of her arriving in the team is somewhat serendipitous; she was climbing with friends on Skye, and in the famous Sligachan pub afterwards got talking with others about their adventures of the day. The amazing thing is that one of the those people was a Wasdale MRT team member, and they Read more…
We have a new Graded Search Dog Team Huge congratulations to Tom Cox (our neighbouring team Duddon and Furness MRT) and Search Dog Roxy who successfully passed their final assessment last night! It was a rather soggy night on Catbells but Roxy was a little super star making light work of the technical terrain and bracken (most of which was at least twice her height)! Tom and Roxy first joined the Association in March 2021, Read more…
A safety message for the paddleboarders, please be prepared.. https://www.adventuresmart.uk/
Please support Frankie (7) and Basia, who are raising money for us with a record breaking climb of Mount Olympus in September. Best of luck to you! Basia McMillan is fundraising for Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team (justgiving.com)
A great day was had by all on a very hot Saturday at Drigg Gala. There were sack races, handmade ice creams, a tug of war and in the thick of it, Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team. Lots of our merchandise went to some happy customers and generous donations were offered. There was lots of interest in the work of the team and plenty of strokes for Jess the rescue dog. We raised £248 in total. Read more…
Many many belated thanks from April to all the lovely people who supported us at the Farmers Market in Egremont, where we provided refreshments, and our Open Day at our base the following day. Both events were a great success, the Farmers Market raising £450.06, and the Open Day £826.05. This came as a welcome surprise as it wasn’t intended as a fund-raising day, but as an opportunity for people to come and see what Read more…
One of our team members, Stephen Walter, will shortly take on a very challenging and different fundraising event. He is doing this to raise awareness and funds for PipersAngels, a charity that is helping him and other people with cystic fibrosis. His challenge is an 80mile open sea crossing across the Atlantic Gulf Stream overnight and through the day on 25th June 2023. He is doing this challenge on a 14ft stand-up paddleboard (SUP). He Read more…
Great to have a sunny evening for our “Medical Monday” training this week! We went through several scenarios of incidents we may come across, and a refresher on our medical equipment to keep our skills fresh for what is looking to be a very busy summer. Our team are on standby 24 hours a day 365 days a year, we are all unpaid volunteers and rely on donations to operate. If you’re able to and Read more…
Dear Follower – this is what i have just sent out as a press release from LDSAMRA. It was a relatively slow start to 2023 with respect to numbers of callouts for our 12 rescue teams with over 400 volunteer team members but things have now caught up with previous record levels. With 182 callouts since the start of 2023, April has experience our busiest increase with 56 calls for help via ‘999’ to Cumbria Read more…
One of our team members, Andy Cramp, is raising funds for the team in May by partaking in the Fred Whitton cycling event. It’s a very tough day at 112 miles and over 3500m of ascent, so Andy will need all the advance encouragement he can get! If you’d like to help him and us you can donate below…. https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/andrew-cramp2?utm_source=messenger&utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=andrew-cramp2&utm_campaign=pfp-share&utm_term=5c2f4b06f6ca4646ae259799be3c2290
Join us for our Open Day on 22nd April at our base! Whether you’re thinking about joining the team, are one of our supporters, or just want to come and see what we do. Have a brew and some cake with the Team, meet our search dog Jess, try your hand at orienteering, learn a bit of navigation, see our boat, have a go at stretcher carrying, get tips about how to read the weather, Read more…
Please drop in at the Market Hall in Egremont…. lots of lovely things on offer to raise funds for the team.
Easter Sunday is one of the busiest days of the year for visitors to Scafell Pike, and this year members of the team were on hand close to the NT Brackenclose car park offering advice and guidance to walkers. Lots of positive engagement with people, some quality merchandise on offer and good banter made for a very enjoyable morning, and hopefully resulted in more people staying safe.
To mark International Women’s Day we’re joining mountain rescue teams throughout the country in celebrating the amazing women we have volunteering on our teams. We’re lucky to have a supportive welcoming team at Wasdale and we encourage more women to get involved!
A recent article on the Mountaineering Scotland website provides excellent advice on navigation including the pitfalls of using GPS devices and smartphones as electronic navigation aids . A recent 20 hour search for a lost walker Scafell Pike / Broad Crag/ Great End involved over 70 rescuers and could have been avoided if reliance had not been placed on a mobile phone for navigation. The walker was extremely lucky to survive his ordeal on the mountain Read more…
There was a bit of drama at Scouts this week, 3 of our leaders carelessly managed to injure themselves on the field … luckily Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team were visiting & quickly organised our #Scouts into a rescue party! Thanks to the MRT volunteers for a really interesting couple of nights learning about the valuable work they do. #SkillsForLife #CumbriaScouts
Some further information on a recent rescue, and some good advice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDiZfnyxatY #BeAdventureSmart
Wasdale Mountain Rescue team were alerted by Cumbria Police at 18.26 hrs on Monday 20 February about a lone walker who had reported himself as lost on the ridge between Scafell Pike and Great End in the Lake District. Mobile phone reception was very poor, but a location was quickly established and although the weather was deteriorating with thick mist and rain, he was asked to stay where he was and shelter from the wind. Read more…
Earlier this week we were delighted to host the West Cumbria Home Education group at our base. Team members organised activities to demonstrate: key first aid skills and knowledge; map reading and radios; and the range of equipment in our response vehicles. We had a great afternoon and we hope everyone else enjoyed themselves as much too!
It’s not £208.20? OH YES IT IS!! Big thanks go again to Gosforth Amateur Dramatic Society – GADS for raising a great sum for us during their recent production of Cinderella. The generosity of Gosforth folk and beyond is much appreciated. We hope they had a lot of fun raising it and that the ugly sisters got what they deserved!