Incident 43 of 2020:-
12/12/2020, 13:41, Great How crag, NY277001
It was a cool, damp and cloudy winter’s day, with the tops lost in mist. Four lads got stuck on a ledge while descending from Great How where there is no path, and were noticed by a passing walker who called Cumbria Police for help. One of the party then managed to descend, but the other three saw how close he came to a big fall, and decided to stay put. We were called out, and despatched three Land Rovers to Levers Water dam. We then hiked up with all our kit across the screes to the base of the crag. Two of our team climbed a gully to their side, climbed over to their ledge, set up a belay and lowered the remaining three down using team harnesses.
It transpired that they thought that they were climbing and descending the Old Man of Coniston, which is more than a mile away from Great How, having parked their car at the Fell Gate car park and walked right past the Old Man. Great How in descent is one of our three key hotspots (see the Key Info tab above), where people have not fared well in the past. At least this incident had a safe outcome.
16 volunteer members attended for 3 hours and 30 minutes.
