Striding Edge, scene of the walker's slip

A walker was airlifted from England’s third highest mountain after breaking her leg in a fall.

The woman slipped while on Striding Edge on Helvellyn this afternoon, Sunday. Rescuers then had to deal with an injured runner on the mountain a short time later.

Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team was alerted about 1.45pm and two of its members, who were already on the mountain, went straight to the site.

The team members treated the woman while four other Patterdale rescuers, including the team’s doctor, wear airlifted to the summit, above the incident site, by the Great North West Air Ambulance.

Six more team members climbed to the site and the woman was carried by stretcher to the summit plateau where the air ambulance, after refuelling at Carlisle airport, returned to fly the injured walker to hospital in Carlisle.

The rescue operation took more than five hours and involved 16 members of the volunteer mountain rescue team.

While the rescue was underway, the team was called about 2.30pm to a fellrunner above Keppel Cove, also on Helvellyn, who had fallen and suffered a deep gash to his knee. A spokesperson for the Patterdale team said: “When the rescue team arrived the man, who was competing in a local competition, decided to complete the race and seek further medical advice himself later.”

Today’s incidents were the latest in a busy week for the team, including a call to Ruthwaite Lodge, Grisedale,  yesterday to help a 14-year-old walker suffering blisters though the boy managed to get himself off the fell; an Australian couple lost on a fell overlooking Ullswater, and the major search earlier in the week for the missing fisherman Mark Bryant, who died on the lake.

A team spokesperson said: “This hopefully brings an end to a busy week for Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team. “