Birk Side, Thirlmere (16)

Incident No: 16

Date: 22nd March 2016

Time: 12:37

Location: Birk Side, Thirlmere

An hour earlier, the North West Ambulance Service had received a call from a 20 year old lone male who had taken a fall somewhere on Helvellyn, having been walking for 3 hours. Initially, Patterdale MRT was requested to look into this. All the information was very sketchy, and not helped by a very poor phone signal. Having exhausted several possibilities on the Patterdale side, Keswick MRT was asked to check out the Thirlmere side of Helvellyn, and an air ambulance was also tasked to fly over the possible areas. Fortunately, the man was spotted from the air, 500 metres above Thirlmere.

The man was not injured and so was stretchered down a steep and awkward slope to a waiting ambulance in the valley below, and taken to Carlisle Infirmary to be checked over, and interviewed by the police for possible false calls!

Unfortunately, the casualty managed to jump ship by discharging himself from the hospital, thereby missing his visit from the police.

17 Team members – 4 hours 13 minutes.