Lingmell, with the deep ravine of Piers Gill visible left of centre, and the crags above

A group of walkers had to be rescued after they strayed on to steep ground when they took a wrong turn coming down from England’s highest mountain.

Volunteers from the Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team used ropes to get the four to safety in an overnight operation lasting 10 hours.

The four young men were found in an ‘extremely precarious’ position on Lingmell Crag in the early hours of this morning.

The rescue team was called out at 8.45pm yesterday, Wednesday, when the men rang 999 from one of their mobile phones.

Richard Warren, the team chairman, said visibility was poor as the men descended from Scafell Pike.

He said: “They had walked across from Langdale earlier that day after climbing Jacks Rake on Pavey Ark in the morning.

“Leaving the summit of Scafell at 4.30pm they made a navigational error and dropped into Piers Gill, a notorious blackspot for the team.

“After descending the two waterfall pitches they found they could not descend further so climbed out of the hill and 300ft up into the Lingmell Crag.

“The area is very steep, slippery and unstable. They then became stuck and called out mountain rescue.”

The entrance to Piers Gill on the Corridor Route. The actual path follows the higher ground round to the right

The cragfast walkers were found in an operation involving 14 team members.

Mr Warren said: “They were roped off the crags from their extremely precarious position and then walked back down to Wasdale Head. The incident closed at around 7.30am.”

He said it was the team’s 109th incident of 2012.

The entrance to Piers Gill lies on the Corridor Route, one of the main paths up Scafell Pike from Sty Head. Walkers often mistakenly enter the deep gill rather than taking the path that leads around it. Once beyond a certain point in Piers Gill, it becomes very difficult to continue or retrace the route.