Glaramara (27)

A return to winter. A couple were out bagging Wainwrights around Glaramara when the woman slipped off a drop and fell around 5m banging her head and landing hard injuring her upper leg. The woman’s walking partner came to check if she was alright. The woman assured him she was OK and that he should continue to search for his mobile phone that he had lost on the fell somewhere. The man backtracked along their route but in the bad visibility and snow that was not easy. After giving up on the phone the man found he could no longer find the woman despite searching for some considerable time. The man, without his phone, had no choice but to descend. Meantime the woman realised that something was wrong and called 999 for Mountain Rescue. The woman was able to make her own way back up towards Glaramara aided by regular confirmatory calls from the rescue base and using phone find to track her progress. When the phone signal got weak the woman was asked to stay where she was so that the team knew exactly where to find her.

The team approached from Combe Gill above Mountain View and also up the steep Hind Gill from Seathwaite to maximise the chances of finding the woman. Meantime on safely reaching the valley bottom in Seathwaite the man called 999 using the public payphone and reported his location and the situation to the police.

The woman reported being cold and having a sore leg from her fall so the team asked for help from Cockermouth MRT to boost Keswick’s numbers in the case a stretcher carry proved necessary. Many thanks to them for turning out to help. Despite poor visibility on the snowy tops the team found the woman thanks to the precise phone find location. She was given some food and after being assessed she was able to walk off unaided. The two walkers were eventually reunited back at the Keswick MR base where, let’s just say, some choice words were exchanged.

22 Keswick team members, 7 Cockermouth team members – 4 hours 37 minutes