Incident 13 of 2023:-
10/03/23, 05.10, Saddlestone Quarry, SD280981
Full winter conditions continued after Incident 12. Despite this, two men set off at around at 11am on Thursday 9th intending to climb the Old Man of Coniston with plans to carry on to Hardknott Fort, and a bivvy overnight. They did not make their expected progress, and stopped at Saddlestone Quarry around 4pm. One of them eventually became irrational and uncommunicative, symptoms of hypothermia, so the other called for help.
Cumbria Police called us at 5.10am, and we despatched two Land Rovers to bring them down. So much snow had fallen that we had to fit both vehicles with snow chains in order to reach the Fell Gate and on to Windy Gap. We then walked up, found them, gave them a hot drink and accompanied them back to our base.
There, they were warmed up with food and drink and educated on the merits of proper preparation, reviewing and heeding severe weather warnings and given the Adventure Smart message (look it up if this is new). https://www.adventuresmart.uk/lake-district-cumbria/
9 volunteer members attended (although all of the team would have been woken up by the incoming text) for 2 hours 50 minutes. Some of the team then retired to the Coniston Inn where coffee and bacon butties were kindly provided to refuel them.
