Gt. Langdale

Incident Report #22 1995

A party of 5 became benighted due to inexperience, an over-ambitious route and atrocious weather. One made it down to the valley to raise the alarm. When we arrived at the scene, two were suffering severe hypothermia, and two, minor. Again 90mph winds and rain and snow prevented a helicopter reaching the scene. Team members bivouacked until first light, when two casualties were walked out, and two were stretchered to Angle Tarn. Although winds were still very high, daylight allowed a helicopter from Boulmer to pick up the two stretcher cases.
Incident Type

Incident Report #3 1995

A young couple chose to ascend the fell by a very obscure route. It would have been an odd choice in warm, dry conditions, so in the snow and ice that prevailed, it left us scratching our heads The young man took a tumble, hit his head, and then carried on uphill(?). They eventually became cragfast and started to shout for help. Their shouts were heard by a passing postman, who raised the alarm. We eventually tracked them down by following the trail of blood uphill. Both were suffering from severe hypothermia and the younq man had a nasty head injury.
Incident Type

Incident Report #65 1996

A party of three in their thirties phoned from "Three Tarns" to say they were lost in the mist and dark, and could we guide them off. This always difficult to do since if their exact location is not known then we can't know for sure where we're sending them, and having no torch didn't help. We sent a party up to locate them. On the phone one of them revealed that he had a "personal locator beacon", a device for locating crashed aircrews at sea. We discussed the matter with the RAF and they said they could pin-point it if a helicopter could fly low over it a couple of times.
Incident Type

Incident Report #57 1996

This incident was reported as requiring an Ambulance for leg injuries. The man was actually three miles up the fellside and suffering from debilitating chest pains. He was treated for his pain by Team members then airlifted to Furness General Hospital by a Royal Navy Helicopter. He was actually suffering from torn intercostal muscles, sustained several days earlier, but requiring heavy exertion to bring on the problem.
Incident Type

Incident Report #52 1996

A man collapsed during the descent from an overnight camp in the hills. An ambulance was called, but he was too far up for them to evacuate. We arrived and assisted the ambulance with the administration of I.V. fluids and oxygen and then evacuated him to the ambulance. During all this he was completely incoherent and semi-conscious, only coming round briefly to inform us that he was a year younger than his companion informed us when we were filling in our casualty information card. He spent three days in Intensive Care.

Incident Report #49 1996

A 14 year old girl slipped while walking with a school party and injured her ankle. The leader was all fired up to evacuate the girl using a climbing rope and the rest of the party, but common sense prevailed and he called us instead. There's a time and place for self help and a group of hot, tired 13 year olds is neither. It's much easier to evacuate one casualty from the fell than 5 or 6, even if they are a bit lower down.
Incident Type

Incident Report #47 1996

A 58 year old woman collapsed while walking with her son and husband. They carried her down a good part of the way and then sent for help. She was suffering from heat induced exhaustion, and her companions had handled the situation well, even realising at one point that she was becoming cold, and taking steps to re-warm her. She was taken to Ambleside Health Centre for a once over from a doctor.
Incident Type

Incident Report #30 1996

This man fell and sustained serious head and back injuries. When we arrived at the reported scene we found nothing. A bit of detective work located them a bit lower down, the injured man being "walked" down by his friends. Although well intentioned, this is not a very safe method of evacuating a barely conscious man with unknown neck and back injuries.
Incident Type

Incident Report #90 1997

People camping at Angle Tarn heard shouts for help. They phoned us and went to investigate. They found a husband and wife benighted and without a torch. They contacted us and informed us that they had room for them in their tents and would point them in the right direction in the morning. They had suffered no injuries so we left them to it. They were reported missing from their Grasmere Guest House at 10am the following day, by which time they were well on their way down. Lesson to be learned? Take a torch!

Incident Report #82 1997

We were alerted by mobile phone that these three were unhurt, but lost in the vicinity of Stickle Tarn. A search, using dogs and man power was organised, but nothing was found. A little later we were contacted from the Old Dungeon Ghyll to say that they had found there way down. An interview with them revealed that they had actually been near Angle Tarn (a subtle, but significant difference). Where I went to school, we would have called people like this "Divvies", and there are several popular contemporary expressions, that decency prevents me from using, that would be appropriate.
Incident Type