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Gearing up for the peak 2024 tourist season, The Lakes Distillery launched a special edition gin to provide much needed funding to promote safety messaging across Cumbria. Part of the funding package included a £10,000 grant from the Lake District Foundation for Adventure Smart leaflets and merchandising which is already being widely distributed across Cumbria by the 12 volunteer search and rescue teams at shows and events.

Following the result of a very successful launch at the end of May 2024, the remaining bottles of the special edition Lakes Mountain Strength Gin now has limited availability in Booths and independent retailers. Booths is one of the main retailers and has kindly laid on special gin tastings at their Penrith and Keswick stores to continue our important safety messaging campaign. The first will be at Penrith on the afternoon of Monday 19 August, 14.00 to 17.00 hrs. The second will be a mirrored event at Booths in Keswick at a date and time to be confirmed. In addition to being able to sample the Mountain Strength Gin, members of the public will have an opportunity to speak to the mountain rescue team members present to share views on why there are so many lost and missing callouts for the teams which places an unnecessary high demand on their voluntary time away from their families and day jobs.

Bottled at 51% ABV, the alcohol by volume represents the increase in annual callouts that Cumbria Mountain Rescue teams have seen in the 10 years since the distillery opened in 2014. Avoidable rescues are of special concern as they are preventable through good preparation and planning. Importantly they also seriously compromise traumas and medical emergencies by 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 avoidable lost and missing callouts and hence the need for visitors and locals alike to ask themselves the 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?

For the answers to these questions please visit www.adventuresmart.uk

2024 will also be a challenging year for LDSAMRA supporting the 12 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.