In the news

March 1, 2025

On Saturday 1st March Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team went to the aid of two local sheep who had decided their grazing was much nicer in a precarious part of Harrison Crag in the Grisedale Valley.  

The farmer had asked us for assistance to rescue the sheep as they had been in the same place for a few weeks and were unable to exit the same way they had descended. One team member had already been to recce the scene and decided it was a full rope rescue which would be carried out from the top of the crag abseiling down to the sheep.  

Once the rope systems were set up using belays etc, two willing volunteers descended down the crag and, after a short amount of sheep whispering, they managed to catch the first culprit. This sheep was then lowered down to the bottom where it was released safely to immediately start eating fresh grass.

The second one was now looking very sheepish and succumbed to being caught and lowered down very quickly.  The two rescued sheep wandered off along the hillside without so much as a backward glance or thank you to their rescuers.

The team are always available to carry out these types of rescues , it gives us valuable training experience. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the local farms whose land we access and use for training  and rescues.

8 Team members volunteered for the extra training and had an enjoyable few hours in the sunshine.