Incident Report #11 2003

We were called to assist in a search for two women, one of who had broken her leg. They had phoned for help and estimated that they were an hour from Seathwaite and near a waterfall, but that was the extent of the information received. Contact was lost, and we were unable to speak to them again. A massive search was organised involving nine rescue teams, including Keswick, Wasdale, RAF Leeming, two helicopters and ourselves. They were located at 12.30 on Tuesday lunchtime, in Eskdale. They had spent the night huddled under a space blanket, in the shelter of a boulder. They were picked up by helicopter suffering from the previously mentioned broken leg and hypothermia. It would be fair to say it was a cold night, with snow and freezing rain. The whole incident took 22 hours, and involved 140 people. I think they were lucky to have survived.