Sharp Edge, scene of the rescue

A man suffered serious injuries after falling on a scrambling route today.

The walker, in his 40s, tumbled 15m (50ft) while descending Sharp Edge on Blencathra in the Lake District.

The man suffered serious head, face and leg injuries in the fall, which happened at the trickiest part of the traverse, an exposed step across a gap.

Keswick Mountain Rescue Team was alerted shortly before 2.30pm today, Sunday. The scrambler had fallen into what the team knows as ‘the usual gully’, an accident blackspot on the ridge.

The team requested air support and an air ambulance managed to drop off a doctor and paramedic before being forced to withdraw because of bad weather.

After treating the man at the site, the Keswick team lowered him 45m (150ft) to a site below the cloudbase where a Sea King helicopter from RAF Boulmer in Northumberland was able to get the man onboard and airlift him for further medical treatment to the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle.

The 5½-hour rescue operation involved 24 members of the volunteer Keswick Mountain Rescue Team.

Sharp Edge is a popular Grade One scramble route from Scales Tarn to the summit plateau of 868m (2,848ft) Blencathra. The edge is known to be more difficult in the wet due to its polished rock. In ice and snow conditions, it is classed as a winter climb.

Since the team started recording incidents on Sharp Edge, there have been 72 incidents on the ridge, which resulted in 10 deaths.