Cumbria mountain rescue teams deal with 392 callouts this year

The busiest team is Keswick Mountain Rescue Team with 82 callouts to date where team members have needed to deploy with a further seven where their team leader has managed to successfully resolve 999 incidents.

The teams also have had to deal with 15 tragic incidents so far this year.

Wasdale MRT is one of the busiest teams in the region, having dealt with over 86 individual callouts up to the middle of July. 

READ MORE: Signs to be installed on England's highest mountain after accidents and deaths

Over half of Wasdale’s callouts are on Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England at 978m.

Around 60 per cent of the callouts on Scafell Pike fall into the category of lost, missing or overdue and avoidable with proper preparation.

A team helping a walker who injured their knee on Scaffel Pike (Image: Submitted) Richard Warren, of the Lake District Search and Mountain Rescue Association, explained that this is due to being on most outdoor enthusiasts' bucket lists as a must-do mountain as part of The 3 Peak Challenge.

Wasdale MRT has been deployed nearly 60 times to Scafell with 29 alerts.

Mr Warren said: "These non-deployment alerts do involve team leaders spending many hours on the phone but saves sending large numbers of volunteer team members out on the hills, taking them away from their families and their work."

Injuries account for 45 per cent of callouts with a further 11 per cent of medical emergencies and the remainder being cragfast, water-related, animal rescues or more general incident support to the statutory bodies.

A rescue at Broad Crag with the help of the RAF (Image: Submitted) Mr Warren said that the number of Cumbria-wide incidents this year continues to increase, currently slightly higher than last year which, with over 700 callouts, was Cumbria's busiest year.

As of the middle of July 2024, the start of the region’s busy summer period, the 12 teams across Cumbria have had to deal with over 392 callouts compared to 380 last year.

Cumbria’s overall percentage for lost and missing is 26 per cent for the year to date compared to 27 per cent at the same time last year and 30 per cent in previous years. 

Mountain rescuers have been promoting #BeAdventureSmart since 2019 to reduce the increasing workload on Cumbria’s 12 volunteer search and rescue teams.

The Adventure Smart campaign involves asking yourself three questions before going on an outdoor activity on the water or in the mountains: Do I have the necessary skills for the day? Have I checked the weather forecast? Do I have the right equipment? 

"We are hoping that the #BeAdventureSmart message is eventually having an impact, making a good day even better for those who live in Cumbria and the large numbers that now visit Cumbria," concluded Mr Warren.