Incident 46 of 2020:-
29/12/2020, 15:25, Dow Crag, SD263978
It was a sunny but freezing evening, with some snow on the tops and some ice still present on the paths. We had trouble earlier in another very busy day on the fells with a car parked badly at the Fell Gate car park, blocking our access to the Walna Scar road which allow us to get our Land Rovers and equipment closer to incidents and casualties. A team member managed to persuade the car driver to move before our Land Rovers arrived.
With darkness imminent (sunset was 15.56 today), we were called by Cumbria Police about a solo climber who was stuck on Dow Crag. He had no climbing gear with him and was apparently climbing on C Buttress, probably on the C-Ordinary route. He had climbed past some ice and saw more above, hence decided he was stuck, and so called for help. Two team members were on the adjacent hill, and were quickly at the bottom of the crag.
We despatched two Land Rovers to drive as far as we could, and walked the rest of the way to Dow with all our crag rescue and night gear. With daylight limited and a long crag rescue likely into the night, we asked for helicopter assistance, and Rescue 936 (HM Coastguard S-92 from Caernarfon) was tasked to help.
They arrived overhead, and, due to concerns over the downwash from the helicopter blowing the climber off the crag, the crew had a practice on a nearby crag first. They formulated a plan and decided to go ahead with an inch-perfect display of precision night flying. The crew have our admiration for a job well done.
17 volunteer members attended for this incident, which took 3.1 hours.
