In the news

The schools have now broken up for summer and with warm but mixed weather, the numbers of adventure seeking visitors is now increasing as anticipated. July and August are always the busiest months for mountain incidents and last weekend saw a total of 14 calls taken by the teams across Cumbria. As of the 23 July 2024 there have been 418 actual “999” emergency calls coming through the Police and Ambulance Service and tasked to the 12 volunteer rescue teams compared to 401 at the same time last year .

2023 was also our busiest year with a total of 714 ‘999” calls for help by the end of December 2023. Of the 418 ‘999’ callouts in 2024 ……..

38% of these are Injuries with the top three injuries being Ankle, Lower Leg and Head 10% of these are Medical emergencies, top 3 being Dizziness, Heart Attack / Cardiac Arrest and Hypothermia 21% of these were Lost/Missing /Overdue and are avoidable.

The total number of LDSAMRA Team hours deployed so far is now over 22,000 hrs.

Wasdale MRT, which is one of the busy teams is already on 92 callouts with over 5,800 team member hours.

Avoidable rescues, prevented by good preparation and planning are the ones that the teams are trying to reduce as they can seriously compromise the traumas and medical emergencies through unnecessarily denuding team resources. Scafell Pike is a particular problem for Cumbria due to it being the highest mountain in England and on a par with Snowdon in North Wales and Ben Nevis in Scotland for attracting large numbers of walkers. This is one of the Lake District’s bucket list mountains and accounts for around 60% of Wasdale MRTs callouts. Of these, 60% are lost and missing avoidables and hence the need to ask yourself three #BeAdventureSmart questions when planning adventurous activities.

1. Am I confident I have the KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS for the day?

2.Do I know what the WEATHER will be like?

3. Do I have the right GEAR?

2024 will also be a challenging year for LDSAMRA supporting the teams with additional funding for capital expenditure as the teams are in the process of upgrading rescue bases and equipment to accommodate the increases in callouts – over the next two years an additional £3 million will need to be raised through fundraising so in addition to getting the safety messaging across there is a plea for funding support.