Incident Report #83 2003

A man from Kendal allowed his dog, Zeus, to fall in to the top of Kilnshaw Chimney. It couldn't get back out because the ice build-up. He then went into the gully and couldn't get back out either. Fortunately someone passing, carrying a rope and crampons, lowered himself in to the gully and stabilised both, preventing a serious deterioration in the circumstances. We arrived and extracted Zeus and his owner, the other man having the wherewithal to sort himself out. Our casualty assured us he knew what he was doing, but failed to follow instructions to fasten on a helmet that we had lowered him. When he moved it fell off and dropped 130 metres to the scree below, scrapping it. He also claimed to be a regular fell-goer, but was on a 770-metre mountain in snow and ice in jeans, trainer and a sweatshirt. Not surprisingly, he was very cold. We have drawn our conclusions from what we witnessed. I'll leave you to draw yours.

Incident Type
Unique Incident ID
1992