Hart Crag, centre, scene of one of the rescues

Two walkers were rescued from a Lake District fell after being caught out by darkness.

Members of the Langdale and Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team were called at 3.55pm yesterday, Saturday, to help the pair from the Wirral who had made a detour after encountering snow and got lost on Hartsop above How.

A spokesperson for the Langdale team said: “A couple reported themselves stuck on snowy ground that had forced them to go back uphill and made benightment a certainty.

“A search was organised and some useful information was extracted from a Tom Tom car sat-nav that eventually placed them on Hart Crag and descending towards Patterdale. Their recovery was then passed over to Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team.”

A Patterdale spokesperson said: “They were located by a search team uninjured, provided with lighting and escorted down to Deepdale were they were kindly met by a vehicle from Langdale and Ambleside MRT who transported them back to Grasmere.”

Less than an hour later, the Langdale and Ambleside team had to divert from helping to marshal the switch-on of the Ambleside Christmas lights to provide illumination for two walkers shouting for help from Heron Pike, overlooking Rydal.

The spokesperson said: “Team members in the area on the previous search were able to respond quickly and escorted two people from the fell. Lack of torches and poor footwear were an issue!”

The Patterdale team also had a further callout, its third of the day, to help two walkers from York who had become cragfast on St Sunday Crag.

The rescuers were alerted at about 7.10pm. A spokesperson said the pair had misplaced the footpath in thick mist and strayed on to steep craggy ground. “They correctly stopped and asked for assistance. A search party located them unhurt and escorted them to the valley bottom,” the spokesperson added.

Sunset time for the Lake District is currently 4pm.