The family got stranded in the dark on the Wasdale Screes
A family stuck on a Lakeland fellside used their camera’s flash to guide rescuers to them.
The three called for help after they got caught out on the Wasdale Screes in darkness.
They set off for a walk around Wast Water late on Saturday afternoon but became stuck after night fell and they found themselves on the extensive scree overlooking the lake.
Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team was called out at 6pm and used its rescue rigid inflatable boat to reach the family after being guided to their position by the camera flash.
The walkers were then taken back to the head of the lake where their car was parked.
The three-hour rescue involved 18 volunteer members of the Wasdale team and was its 66th of the year.
Gerald Davison
19 November 2012The OS show a public footpath along the SE shore of Wastwater, which crosses The Screes. I suspect lots of people think it might be a "nice walk around the lake". How wrong they would be!
Around 10 years ago, at the end of a very long day, I crossed this route on a hostel to hostel backpacking trip.
The boulder hopping near the end of the "walk" is awful. Your previous article on this has some comments from Wasdale MR which people would do well to read.
http://www.grough.co.uk/magazine/2012/09/08/rescuers-called-out-to-help-injured-dog-on-wast-water-screes-path
Richard Warren
20 November 2012Well said Gerald - it is a popular walk when the cloud is down or when families want a 'gentle' stroll along a lakeside path with the kids and dogs. The boulder field, as you say, is a nightmare for those who are uncomfortable on loose and slippery boulders. The route for the path across the boulder field (if you can call it a path) is not clear and when walkers look down into the depths of Wastwater, they seem to be drawn upwards to the higher scree areas where, before long they are effectively 'scree fast' (as opposed to cragfast). Again the plea goes out for walkers to carry one torch per person along wiith all the other bits of essential kit. At least if a walker gets lost a flashing torch will attract help and eventually get the rescuers to the person. That is of course only as a last resort and the torch and map and compass will hopefully get them out of their predicament without having to callout the unpaid professional rescuers (note the above stats are slightly misleading as when you visit their website (www.wasdalemrt.org.uk) the team has had many more '999' calls - 112 in total so far this year of which 46 involve the Team Leaders dealing with it on their own, normally talking them down by phone (a very time consuming process requiring high degree of local knowledge, courage patience). Hats off to our TLs.