Brown Cove Crags (9)

Callout Date: 30/01/2026
Callout Time: 4:37 pm
Agencies Involved: Keswick MRT, Patterdale MRT, Coast Guard Rescue 936 Caernarfon, GNAAS

At our AGM on Thursday night departing team leader Chris Higgins (12 years as leader) handed over the reins to Keswick’s new team leader Tom Blakely. On Friday Tom was in at the deep end when we received a call via the Patterdale team of a fallen climber on Brown Cove Crags. The casualty was with a friend when he slipped, was unable to ice axe arrest and fell approximately 100m down one of the gullies. His friend raised the alarm then made his way around to the base of the crag to find the casualty who was conscious but in a lot of pain. Fortunately they had a bothy bag in which to shelter until the team arrived. A Coast Guard helicopter was requested and Rescue 936 from Caernarfon attended but was unable to get to the casualty location due to the low cloud.

The casualty was assessed, given pain relief and packaged for a stretcher evacuation. The casualty was lowered by rope down the steep and snowy scree fan and then sledged and carried downward. The Coast Guard meantime supplied a grid reference for the team to aim for where a winch evacuation would hopefully be possible. Once the team were below the cloud R936 very skilfully flew up towards the team. The casualty was then winched into the helicopter and taken to the base of the hill where a GNAAS team were awaiting to continue medical care. The GNAAS medics then accompanied the casualty in the helicopter to hospital in Preston. Many thanks to the five Patterdale team members who turned out to help.

21 Keswick MRT, 5 Patterdale MRT, Coast Guard R936 Caernarfon, GNAAS