In the news

November 6, 2024 4:18 pm

At 16:18 on Wednesday 06/11/2024 Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team was alerted by Cumbria Police to a woman in her mid-fifties with an underlying medical condition who had become crag fast whilst scrambling with her partner on Striding Edge. 

After a brief phone conversation with her partner it was clear that she required a stretcher evacuation and the Team were called out.  Due to their location at the far end of the Edge, part way up the exit ramp onto Helvellyn, and the woman’s condition, the assistance of a Coastguard rescue helicopter was also requested.

Team members responded to the callout and started the climb up to the casualty’s location shortly after darkness fell.  The rescue helicopter made several attempts to access Red Tarn and the Grisedale Valley but low cloud and the lack of wind prevented it from winching or landing, and eventually the aircraft returned to its base at Caernarfon. 

Team members reached the woman and her partner at about 18:30.  They assessed her condition and packaged her in a stretcher before beginning the protracted lower down the south east end of the Helvellyn headwall above Red Tarn.  Once at the bottom the stretcher was carried, sledged and wheeled around the tarn and then down to Greenside Mines.

The rescue lasted 7 hours and involved 13 team members.