Incident Report #7 2003

Three young men contacted friends by text message to report that they were lost and unable to find a way down. They were also unable make voice contact because of poor phone reception. We were contacted and told by them, by text, that they were near Angle Tarn. (If you haven't experienced the joy of text, ask a fourteen-year-old. Watch those fingers go!) Four team members and a SARDA dog went up to locate them. Surprisingly (see incident 6) they weren't there, but after a short search we could here them shouting. Initially we were unable to locate them from the noise, due to swirling winds, but with cunning detective work, and the assistance of dog Paddy (and a desire to get home to bed), we located them near High House Tarn. This is approximately 3km from Angle Tarn. They had been on Scafell and had run out of daylight on their way down. Then they made a wrong turn. All were inadequately equipped, and one was wearing trainers. They had one fading torch and a damp and malfunctioning mobile phone. They were escorted down to Borrowdale, where a Keswick MRT vehicle was waiting to return us to Ambleside. Fell into bed around 3.30am!