Incident Report #96 2007

Two days on....No torch....no daylight....no dinner.....again....but that would have been so simple. Three men phoned to say they were benighted after losing their way on Crinkle Crags. At one point they had descended to Lingcove Beck, but had climbed back up, certain that they were heading north west to Three Tarns. They became stuck when it went dark. They gave us an approximate location near Three Tarns, on a grass slope, facing south east. They occassionally were able to see lights below them, but an initial search was drawing a blank, despite moving searchers around on the basis of the directions they were able to give us.  By now we had drafted in 3 SARDA dogs to help locate them and were in the process of calling for assistance from Duddon & Furness MRT when we received a call from the Police telling us about shouts for help that were being reported from Ore Gap by wild campers. This area is some distance from where we were currently looking, but working on the principal that anyone shouting for help around midnight in the middle of nowhere probably needed help, irrespective of whether they turned out to be our missing men or not, was worth a look. These wild campers turned out to be the lights our victims were looking at! I'd like to make it clear that at this point the weather was diabolical. Strong winds and rain turning to snow.....Team members made their way around Bowfell and eventually reached the three at Ore Gap on a north facing slope, along with a SARDA dog handler, who'd come up Rossett Ghyll. They were quickly revived and got moving while other team members searching other areas made their way off the hill, and others made their way up with additional lighting to assist. The whole operation was completed by about 3.15am. The men were very cold but otherwise unharmed, but would have had a very uncomfortable night had a camper at Angle Tarn not a. been there, b. bothered to climb out of his sleeping bag and go out into some very unpleasant weather to check some faint shouts he'd heard, and c. climbed up the hill to get a mobile signal and report it! If our victims had stuck with their original escape plan and carried on down Lingcove Beck. If our victims hadn't left their torches in the car. If they hadn't mistaken north for north east. If...