The year just ending was eventful as ever, with triumph, tragedy and the odd bit of comedy as outdoors fans took to the UK countryside and further afield.

A little collie called Jasper provided one of the big stories when he went missing on the Scafell range, with an ending that was both happy and astounding.

Here’s grough’s look over the shoulder at 12 months’ of outdoor action.

January

Woodhead Mountain Rescue Team member Mike France was named head of the umbrella body for teams in England and Wales.

He pledged he would maintain Mountain Rescue England and Wales’s independence from Government when he took over from David Allan.

More than 70 hardy runners lined up to start arguably the country’s most brutal race, The Spine, following the full 431km (268-mile) length of the Pennine Way.

The race was won by Pavel Paloncy in a time of 4 days 14hrs 44mins.

Meanwhile, Barnsley South Labour MP Dan Jarvis was among 200 runners who took to the Peak District hills to support a mountain rescue team.

He joined competitors in the Trigger Fell Race to raise cash for the Woodhead team.

The race, run in very cold and windy conditions, followed a 38km (23-mile) route across some of the national park’s highest ground, between Marsden in West Yorkshire and Edale in Derbyshire.

Rescuers searching for a fallen walker instead found a mystery dog.

Members of the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation could find no trace of a human casualty after the callout to Y Garn, but did discover a black and white jack russell stuck on a ledge on the mountain.

The North Wales Police helicopter flew over the area after passing walkers raised the alarm after seeing the dog on the crags at the back of Cwm Cywion, north-west of the mountain summit.

The dog was later reunited with its owner.

February

A group of walkers, including one hypothermic woman, was rescued from a mid-Wales mountain in an eight-hour night-time operation involving more than 50 volunteer team members.

Rescuers said if the hypothermic walker had been found much later, there could have been a serious outcome.

Seven students from Manchester Metropolitan University called for help after getting into difficulties on Saturday on the 752m (2,467ft) Pumlumon Fawr mountain between Aberystwyth and Llanidloes.

Mountain rescuers helped reunite a walker with his lost dog after the man survived a 500ft fall on a Lake District mountain.

The dog survived a night in severe wintry conditions after the walker was unable to make his way back up the steep ground to retrieve her after his fall.

The man survived his fall, in a whiteout on Caudale Head, with only minor injuries.

A Lake District mountain rescue team appointed only its fifth leader in 66 years.

Chris Higgins was elected leader of Keswick Mountain Rescue Team, one of the busiest in the country, after Mark Hodgson stepped down from the post.

Mr Higgins follows an illustrious list of leaders which includes three MBEs and an OBE.

Rescuers said a man who fell more than 150 feet from Wales’s highest mountain was very lucky not to have fallen further.

The 28-year-old from north Wales managed to arrest his fall after a large cornice gave way on Snowdon, plunging him down the mountainside.

Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team warned there was a considerable avalanche risk on the area’s mountains at the moment, with lots of unstable snow and large cornices.

The team was also called to help a man buried in an avalanche on the mountain about the same time as the fallen walker called for help.

While floods in southern England grabbed the news headlines, the Scottish Highlands had a bumper year of snow.

Ian Sykes, who established the Nevis Range ski centre on the slopes of Aonach Mòr in Lochaber, said the resort had had the most snow in its history.

Snow fell on the ski slopes for 59 consecutive days and at the weekend Nevis Range enjoyed its busiest day for 10 years.

Almost 1,700 skiers and snowboarders took to the mountain one Sunday.

Average snow depths were thought to be 1.6m on the lower slopes, 4.5m on the upper slopes, with some deep gully areas estimated as being more than 18m deep.

Mountain rescuers described how they faced horrendous conditions in the search for a fallen climber in the Highlands.

Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team members were avalanched during the rescue and fell through cornices on Beinn Eibhinn at least four times.

The man was successfully rescued after he himself fell through a cornice on the 1,102m (3,615ft) munro north-east of Corrour, but a spokesperson said team members risked life and limb in atrocious conditions with very high winds and heavy snowfall in whiteout conditions.

An archive of a renowned mountaineer who died on Everest more than 30 years ago was preserved thanks to a Lottery grant.

Papers and writings of Joe Tasker were made accessible to the public after the Mountain Heritage Trust secured funding of more than £40,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The Penrith-based trust said the Joe Tasker archive comprises correspondence, papers, photographs and literary manuscripts relating to his life as a premier climber and mountaineer plus his ability to illustrate this in outstanding photographic and literary formats.

March

Volunteers from a south Wales mountain rescue team announced they would carry a stretcher over a 50km route to mark their 50th anniversary.

The challenge, which took place across the Brecon Beacons, was just one of a series of events that kick off with a public advice session at the GO Outdoors store in Swansea.

The Western Beacons Mountain Search and Rescue Team also threw a party for present and past members in September and hosted the annual joint exercise for mountain and cave rescue teams in south Wales the same month.

National park leaders welcomed a coalition
Government decision not to allow disused barns to be converted to houses.

Areas of outstanding national beauty and national parks would not be included in areas where planning permission should be given to convert agricultural buildings to homes.

Authorities had raised concerns about the ‘suburbanisation’ of rural areas if a swathe of barns in remote areas was turned into dwellings.

Planning minister Nick Boles made the announcement in a written statement. The Conservative minister said sensitive landscape areas would be excluded from the relaxation in planning rules for agricultural buildings.

Mountain Training announced big changes were afoot in the walking world.

As the organisation that oversees mountaineering qualifications in the UK entered its 50th year, it announced plans to offer for the first time non-leadership courses to the public to improve their skills in the hills and mountains of Britain.

Mountain rescue teams across the country report increased callout rates as more people head for the hills, but many are ill prepared and will now reach for their mobile phone and call for help rather than getting themselves out of trouble.

The company behind Vango, one of the best known tent brands, changed hands in a management buyout.

Three directors took a controlling share in AMG Group, the Port Glasgow-based company that also owns the Force Ten and Lichfield brands.

Directors Stephen Newlands, Steve Craig and Glenn Andrews took over ownership of the company from the Moodie family, which owned the firm for almost 50 years.

James Bond was credited with helping boost visitor numbers to one of Scotland’s finest mountain landscapes.

Glencoe saw an increase of more than 40 per cent visiting its impressive scenery, thanks in part to scenes in Daniel Craig’s depiction of Bond in Skyfall.

The area was the most markedly successful during the Year of Natural Scotland, with outdoor attractions gaining 8 per cent more visits than the previous 12 months.

Scottish Natural Heritage said 114,298 people visited Glencoe the previous year, up 41.7 per cent on 2012.

A group of walkers set out to mark the anniversary of the birth of a pioneer of outdoor holidays.

Thomas Arthur Leonard has been ranked alongside Thomas Cook and Billy Butlin for his influence on British holidaymaking.

The former Congregational minister turned Quaker was instrumental in the founding of the Holiday Fellowship and had a hand in starting organisations such as the Co-operative Holidays Association, Ramblers, Youth Hostels Association and the National Trust.

The boss of the Ramblers joined the head of HF Holidays, the successor organisation to the Holiday Fellowship, in a walk between Ambleside and Grasmere, retracing the steps taken by 30 Lancashire mill workers who enjoyed the first group walking holiday in the Lake District in1891.

A mountain expert warned hillgoers against overreliance on electronic devices for navigation.

Heather Morning, the Mountaineering Council of Scotland’s mountain safety adviser, said battery life in GPS and mobile devices can be significantly reduced in the cold conditions.

If walkers and mountaineers rely solely on electronic gadgets to navigate they can be left unable to find their way if the units fail, she said.

It was announced a film chronicling a year in the life of England’s highest peak would have its premiere.

Film-maker Terry Abraham’s labour of love involved taking hundreds of hours of footage for his Life of a Mountain work.

The film would be shown at Rheged in May and also feature later in the month in the Keswick Mountain Festival.

The owner of a pub on the shore of Loch Lomond said visitors were returning to the area for the first time in 30 years after a wild-camping ban was introduced to curtail antisocial behaviour.

Sandy Fraser of the Oak Tree in Balmaha said he had been thinking of selling up before the national park authority brought in bylaws to ban unauthorised camping along the east banks of the lake.

Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority said the controversial ban on a stretch of Scotland’s most popular long-distance walking route, the West Highland Way, had reduced problems in the area.

Britain’s national mapping agency said claims in a newspaper report that it was to end routine production of paper maps across the whole of Great Britain were untrue.

A story in the Sunday Telegraph implied Ordnance Survey’s maps were at risk of becoming an outmoded means of finding your way in the great outdoors.

“The humble map appears to be heading the way of the sextant, the north star and other seemingly outmoded navigational aids,” it said, while reporting that OS was to start a process of only printing paper maps on demand, rather than having stocks of 1:25,000 and 1:50,000 maps available of the whole of its area, which covers the northernmost tip of Shetland as far south as the Isles of Scilly.

The Telegraph piece said: “Those which cover popular hiking areas, such as the Lake District, are likely to still be produced.”

OS released a statement saying: “There have been a number of articles in the media this weekend reporting that Ordnance Survey is to end its policy of routinely producing maps that cover the whole country.

“This is simply not true.”

April

Police in the Highlands appealed for information after 16 dead birds of prey were found in an area near Conon Bridge.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds offered a £5,000 reward for information leading to a conviction of the perpetrator.

Four buzzard bodies and the remains of 12 red kites were discovered in a two-square-mile area on the edge of the Black Isle, south-east of Conon Bridge around Conon Brae, Balvail, Leanaig and Alcaig.

Tests confirmed some of the birds have been poisoned.

Duncan Orr-Ewing, head of species and land management for RSPB Scotland said: “This appalling incident highlights the very real threat illegal poisoning poses to fantastic species like red kites.

The reward was increased to almost £14,000 with further offers.

A tireless campaigner for walkers’ rights celebrated 30 years with Britain’s oldest national conservation body.

Kate Ashbrook, general secretary of the Open Spaces Society, said she spent the day following the proceedings of a Supreme Court case online.

She began her work with the campaigning group on 2 April 1984 and remembers she got off to a bad start, locked out of the Henley on Thames headquarters with no keys.

During her three decades with the OSS, she has taken on some mighty foes and well known adversaries, including Paul Getty, the Rothschild family, Princess Diana’s father Lord Spencer, Joseph Bamford, head of the JCB excavator company, and the notorious Nicholas van Hoogstraten.

A group of 23 Duke of Edinburgh’s Award participants was among more than 30 walkers rescued in atrocious weather in the Brecon Beacons.

Three mountain rescue teams were joined by Search and Rescue Dogs Association members in three separate incidents in the Black Mountain.

A mountain rescuer ran the 192-mile Coast to Coast course in less than three days to raise cash for his team.

Andy Jackson arrived at Robin Hood’s Bay after traversing three national parks on a 309km route that normally takes two weeks to complete.

His effort raised more than £2,500 for the Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association, which responds to calls for help from walkers and cavers in the Yorkshire Dales.

Mr Jackson, who has been a team member for 21 years, set off from St Bees on the Cumbrian coast and arrived at the North Sea finish less than two days and 20 hours later.

A missing dog was found safe and well after spending five nights on the Lake District fells.

Searches took place each day on the fells above Patterdale when a boxer called Murphy was lost.

The dog and its owner Lewis Blythe were plucked from the mountains by a helicopter and flown to safety yesterday, Saturday.

The helicopter was paid for following a Twitter campaign to raise cash to find the dog, who slipped his lead at Angle Tarn.

A major search had to be carried out to find a group of 15 walkers missing on England’s highest mountain.

Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team was called out at after the group came off Scafell Pike and into upper Eskdale.

A detailed night-time search involving 27 team members was carried out on the Eskdale side of the mountain before the walkers were found near Burnmoor Tarn, west of Scafell.

Bonuses of £1,000 went unclaimed as high winds and boggy underfoot conditions prevented runners smashing records in the Three Peaks Race in the Yorkshire Dales.

Organisers offered £500 each to men and women who could beat long-standing fastest times in the tough 37km (23-mile) fell race, which celebrated its 60th anniversary.

But Salomon runner Ricky Lightfoot’s winning time of 2hrs 53mins 16secs, just over seven minutes slower than Bingley Harriers’ Andy Peace’s record, meant the extra bonus wasn’t paid.

Victoria Wilkinson’s 3hrs 16mins 17secs time missed taking the £500 women’s bonus by less than seven minutes, Czech runner Anna Pichrtova’s 2008 record surviving the attempt.

Wilkinson’s 17th overall place was the second-highest for a woman, two places behind Sarah Rowell’s 1992 record.

May

Mountaineers urged a local authority to take action after more than 600 people reported problems walking on a Highland estate.

The Mountaineering Council of Scotland said North Chesthill Estate in Glen Lyon is a regular source of complaints from walkers.

It has a popular round of four munros: Càrn Mairg, Meall Garbh, Creag Mhor and Càrn Gorm but the MCofS said, despite a statutory right of access, mountaineers still experience a range of problems.

It said North Chesthill was a ‘rogue’ estate where access rights seem to be ignored.

Despite repeated efforts over a number of years, little progress has been made in reconciling the interests of the estate and those wishing to take access, it said.

A piece of Lake District real estate described by Alfred Wainwright as a ‘mountaineer’s mountain was put on the market for £2.1m.

Hugh, the eighth Earl of Lonsdale, Viscount Lowther, Baron of Whitehaven and Lord of the Manor of Threlkeld, was landed with a big bill by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs for inheritance tax and he was hoping the sale of the fell would help.

A new community group, the Friends of Blencathra, was formed to try to buy the mountain, but as 2015 approached, the fell was still on the market.

A farmer was acquitted of manslaughter following the death of a walker attacked by cattle on his land.

A jury at Nottingham Crown Court found Paul Waterfall not guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence after Roger Freeman died in the incident at Underhill Farm in Stanford on Soar on the boundary of Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire.

The court heard the 63-year-old walker was using a public footpath across a field at the farm in November 2010 with his wife Glenis Freeman.

Mr Freeman suffered a broken back, broken ribs and arms and fractures to his shoulder and died at the scene from his injuries.

His wife also suffered injuries in the attack but doubt was cast in the four-week-long hearing as to whether the attacking animal was the bull or a cow in the same field.

Thousands of participants in the Ten Tors challenge had to battle strong winds and sub-zero temperatures over the weekend.

But the Army, which organises the annual test of teenagers’ stamina and navigation skills, said more than 80 per cent of youngsters who started completed the course.

One of Britain’s best known rock-climbers was reunited with rescuers who, he said, helped to save his leg after he suffered serious injuries in a fall.

Johnny Dawes fell while climbing on Stanage Edge in Derbyshire February, resulting in an open fracture to his leg.

He told a friend after the accident that he had seen his sole: he wasn’t talking about a mystical experience, just the fact his foot was facing in the wrong direction.

Dawes, who is renowned for his ‘dyno’ style of climbing, said the fact members of Edale Mountain Rescue Team had training in straightening the type of fracture at the scene meant blood supply and nerve connections to the damaged lower leg were quickly restored, avoiding the risk that the limb might have to be amputated.

A mountain rescue team that grew out of a collection of hillwalking club members and Territorial Army volunteers prepared to mark its golden anniversary.

Aberdeen Mountain Rescue Team covers the whole of the Grampian region, including parts of Deeside, Donside and the Cairngorms.

The team was formed in 1964 from members of the then Adventure Club and interested local mountaineers. Its formation came at a time when mountain rescue in north-east Scotland and elsewhere was less formally organised.

June

A rescue team launched a fundraising appeal to help one of its members who had £600 of gear stolen.

Members of the public are being asked to contribute via an online page to provide money to replace the vital lifesaving gear that disappeared from the Calder Valley Search and Rescue Team’s car when it was parked outside the volunteer’s Bradford home.

More than £700 was subsequently donated, including one of £400 from the boss of a Land Rover equipment firm who has himself been the victim of a theft.

Ultrarunner Steve Birkinshaw began his attempt to break a 27-year-old record for summiting all of the Lake District’s Wainwright peaks.

The Threlkeld-based athlete started his run at the Moot Hall in the centre of Keswick with the aim of setting a record time for the round of 214 mountains.

The ultrarunner arrived back in Keswick to beat Joss Naylor’s record by 12 hours.

The Threlkeld-based runner picked up speed on his final few fells to arrive at the Moot Hall in Keswick in a time of six days and 13 hours.

He was accompanied into the town by about 100 support runners and a crowd greeted his arrival after a gruelling circuit 518km (322 miles) long, over all 214 mountains described by author Alfred Wainwright in his Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells.

A conservation charity called for a public inquiry into plans to build a massive windfarm in the Monadhliath Mountains.

The John Muir Trust wrote to Scottish energy minister Fergus Ewing after he approved SSE’s plans to build 67 turbines at Stronelairg.

It said it was very disappointed by the minster’s decision to allow the development on wild land and said it suspected the move was intended to pre-empt the debate on updated planning rules, given that Stronelairg fell within a proposed core area of wild land.

Mountain rescuers were called out to recover the body of a large dog that collapsed and died on a Lake District fell.

Keswick Mountain Rescue Team was alerted after the newfoundland dog succumbed to heat exhaustion on Sleet How, east of Grisedale Pike.

A Keswick MRT spokesperson said: “A small group drove a Land Rover up through Whinlatter Forest to retrieve it, and handed it over to the owners.”

Ramblers, mountaineers and conservationists welcomed the Scottish Government’s new policy that designated almost a fifth of the nation as wild land.

The publication of a wild land area map and adoption of new planning policies will protect some of Scotland’s best landscapes and mountain areas from development.

But the Mountaineering Council of Scotland expressed its disappointment that the new map saw some areas excluded, including the site of the controversial proposed Stronelairg windfarm in the Monadhliath Mountains, which the Scottish Government recently approved.

Mountain rescuers announced they would tackle a tough cycling tour around the Peak District to mark their organisation’s 50th anniversary.

Representatives from the seven teams in the Peak District Mountain Rescue Organisation cycled between each of the bases and incorporate the gruelling climb up Holme Moss that was used by the Tour de France the following weekend.

The event involved 35 people and covered about 142km (88 miles.

As well as marking the anniversary, riders usedthe event to raise cash both for the umbrella organisation and individual teams.

A leader from the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team took over as the chair of the Scottish umbrella organisation for rescuers.

Simon Steer was elected chair of Scottish Mountain Rescue, which represents more than 1,000 volunteers north of the border.

He took over from Jonathan Hart who held the post for three years.

There were Deaths, both in the outdoors and in the outdoor community.

January

Police said they were concerned for the safety of a walker missing in the Ben Alder area for two weeks.

Michael O’Grady, 64, of Irvinestown, County Fermanagh, was last seen before Christmas after leaving the Loch Ossian Youth Hostel, a mile east of Corrour railway station.

The experienced hillwalker was intending to walk to Culra Bothy, 19km (12 miles) away.

Mr O’Grady’s body would be found near Corrour Bothy a few days later.

It was announced a Peak District outdoors pioneer who helped set up mountain rescue in the national park had died.

Ken Drabble, the park’s retired chief ranger, passed away aged 79.

He spent 30 years working in the Peak District, and was responsible for many innovations and opening up access to walkers in the area.

A former director of the Tiso outdoor retail chain died after falling from a Highland mountain.

Donald Tiso was with another walker on Beinn nan Aighenan above Glen Kinglass when he fell to his death.

Mr Tiso was a director of Graham Tiso, the company founded by his late father, for almost 19 years, stepping down, when the heavily indebted company sold a controlling interest to JD Sports.

A former national park officer who was instrumental in shaping today’s North York Moors died.

Derek Statham, who held the post for 20 years, was 76. He was also one of four founding members of the North Yorkshire Moors Association, an independent charity set up in 1985 to campaign on behalf of the national park. He continued to be involved with NYMA after his retirement and was latterly the association’s president.

February

Rescuers searching for a missing walker in Glen Nevis found his body.

A huge search for Edinburgh man Alistair Porteous took place in the area around the Ring of Steall, south of Ben Nevis.

Members of the Lochaber, Glencoe, Penrith, RAF Lossiemouth and RAF Leeming Mountain Rescue Teams took part in the search in difficult weather conditions, including avalanched areas.

Search and Rescue Dogs Association members and a Royal Navy Sea King search and rescue helicopter from HMS Gannet in Ayrshire also joined the search.

Police searching for a missing paddler in the Brecon Beacons found a body in the River Usk.

A major search was undertaken by mountain rescue team members, Coastguard staff and crews from Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service after the 34-year-old man went missing while kayaking with a group near Llangynidr.

March

An experienced mountaineer fell to his death while walking with a group on a Snowdonia mountain.

Mike Pinney, 62-year-old from Yeovil, Somerset fell 30m (100ft) after slipping on the Carnedd Llewelyn range.

He suffered head injuries in the fall and was given first aid by members of his group, but died before reaching hospital.

A man’s body was found on the slopes of Great Gable after a major search for a missing walker.

Seven mountain rescue teams joined the 18-hour search for a walker who failed to return to his accommodation.

Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team was called out to try to find the missing walker, but had to search a huge area because the walker had left no intended route.

The team enlisted the help of colleagues from the Keswick team, which put 20 volunteers on the central fells, along with three search dogs.

The search, stretching from Eskdale to Great Gable, also involved teams from Duddon and Furness, Coniston, Kendal, Cockermouth, Penrith and Kirkby Stephen.

The body of James Lonsdale, 53, of Selby, North Yorkshire, was found by a member of the public in a gill on the mountainside as the major search was taking place.

Rescuers searching for a missing walker in the Western Isles found a body.

Police Scotland said the body was found after extensive searches for Ted Jackson, who had been reported missing on Harris.

Hebrides Search and Rescue members were joined by Coastguard staff and police dog handlers after the 55-year-old was reported missing.

The man, from Preston, Lancashire, was on a walking holiday on the island.

The body of a man was found on a Lake District mountain after a major overnight search for a missing walker.

The 64-year-old’s body was found near Sharp Edge on Blencathra this morning after a 14-hour operation involving more than 60 rescuers.

He had been reported missing after failing to return from a walk on the 868m (2,848ft) fell.

A climber died after falling from a route on Ben Nevis.

Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team was called out after reports of the incident on the Carn Dearg Buttress.

A Royal Navy Sea King search and rescue helicopter from HMS Gannet in Ayrshire flew rescue team members to the site above the CIC Hut in the shadow of the mountain’s North Face to where the climber had fallen into the route of The Curtain after falling from The Ledge route, which passes above it.

He was climbing with a fellow Glaswegian when the incident happened.

April

A woman died after being rescued from a Lake District stream.

The 49-year-old died in hospital after being airlifted from the site near Glenridding.

Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team was called out to the incident after the woman was found unconscious and hypothermic in Glencoyne Beck, near the Seldom Seen cottages.

They were joined by colleagues from the Keswick and Langdale Ambleside teams, the latter of which took its AutoPulse machine, which delivers automated cardio-pulmonary compressions, to the rescue.

A feisty footpath campaigner who asked for a pair of wirecutters as a Christmas present died aged 97.

Pat Wilson was described as a legend by the Open Spaces Society general secretary Kate Ashbrook.

Ms Wilson died peacefully at her Kent home, in the midst of her continuing campaign work.

She fought for the rights of walkers to use paths and open spaces in Kent and Medway for more than 50 years, and was vice-president of the OSS, local secretary for the area for 20 years and the Ramblers’ footpath secretary for Kent.

A walker died after falling 500ft on Wales’s highest mountain.

Dylan Rattray, 21, of Aberystwyth, was with a friend coming down from Snowdon’s summit when they took the wrong route and ended up on steep ground.

A caver collapsed and died while walking to a route in the western Dales.

The 58-year-old was on his way to Top Sink in the Ease Gill system on Casterton Fell when the incident happened.

Cave Rescue Organisation members carried the man a short distance to an air ambulance and he was flown to Bull Pot Farm, but pronounced dead.

A body was found at a Yorkshire Dales beauty spot and major rock-climbing venue.

Rescuers were called after reports of a person with serious injuries after falling from Malham Cove.

The Cave Rescue Organisation was called out and a spokesperson said: “An initial call to a casualty with serious injuries following a fall at Malham Cove eventually turned into assisting the police with a body recovery from the foot of the Cove.

May

Three paddlers died in an incident on the River Tyne.

Two South Shields brothers and a cousin had gone kayaking on the River Tyne near Hexham.

The bodies of Darren Thorpe, 41 and Mark Thorpe, 39, both of South Shields, and Gavin Bradley, 36, of Jarrow, were found in the river by rescuers.

Search teams looking for a missing walker on England’s highest mountain found a man’s body.

Police were alerted after Christopher Blowman, 67, failed to return after going for a walk on Scafell Pike.

Mr Blowman and his wife, from Louth in Lincolnshire, were staying in the area. She expressed her concern for the welfare of her husband, who was described as an experienced walker.

June

Colin Pringle, 52, of Wallington, south London, died during the Great North Swim in Windermere. He was taking part in the two-mile event in the lake on Friday when he fell ill.

Cumbria Constabulary said he was attended to immediately by accident and emergency medical staff and transferred by Great North Air Ambulance to Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle but later died.

A teenage Explorer Scout died while gorge scrambling in Italy.

Elliot Peacock, 14, was with a group taking part in the activity at the Lillaz Falls in the Aosta Valley in northern Italy when he lost consciousness.

Instructors from Acorn Adventure, which was running the event, pulled the youngster from the water and attempted cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, helped by nurses who were in the area, but the boy was pronounced dead at the scene.

July

Corin Castle, 21, of Canterbury, Kent, died after he fell 600ft in Gleann Eanaich, suffering fatal injuries.

Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team was joined at the scene by a Sea King search and rescue helicopter from RAF Lossiemouth, after one of his companions raised the alarm

One of the founders of a Snowdonia mountain rescue team died in a climbing accident in the Llanberis Pass.

John Ellis Roberts fell while climbing on Dinas Cromlech, and members of the team he belonged to were called to deal with the incident.

Mr Roberts, who was a few days short of his 71st birthday, was also former head warden for the Snowdonia national park.

The body of a man was found at the foot of an 80m Yorkshire Dales crag.

Roy Lancaster, 54, contacted North Yorkshire Police before his body was discovered at Malham Cove.

The body of Mr Lancaster’s wife Suzanne Louise Lancaster, 67, was found at the couple’s home in Talbot Avenue, Roundhay, Leeds, and West Yorkshire Police began a murder investigation.

Mrs Lancaster was a part-time Church of England priest at St Edmund’s Parish Church, Leeds.

A man fell to his death on sea cliffs in North Yorkshire.

Malcolm Hall, 51, was climbing with another man when he fell from Kettle Ness, near Runswick Bay.

Mr Hall, known as Mac, and from Skelton near Saltburn, was airlifted to hospital in Middlesbrough but pronounced dead on arrival.

The body of a missing walker was found on Wales’s highest mountain.

Another walker spotted the man near the summit of Snowdon.

The 21-year-old fell about 60m (200ft) on a scree slope above the Pyg Track.

Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team was called out and a Sea King helicopter from RAF Valley also flew to the scene. A walker had been reported missing earlier.

August

Rescuers searching for a missing Dartmoor walker found a man’s body.

The discovery was made near Okehampton on the northern fringe of the national park.

Teams from North Dartmoor Search and Rescue at Okehampton and the Ashburton section of Dartmoor Search and Rescue were called out after the man became separated from his companions after the group went for a short evening walk in the Belstone area.

An RAF Sea King search and rescue helicopter from RMB Chivenor and Search and Rescue Dogs Association members joined the operation.

A walker’s whose body was found on a mountainside in Glen Etive.

Martin Livingstone, 55, of Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, was reported missing after going walking on Ben Starav.

His body was found in Coire Lotha on the 1,078m (3,537ft) munro after an extensive search involving Glencoe, Lochaber and Oban Mountain Rescue Teams, Search and Rescue Dogs Association members and Sea King helicopters from RAF Lossiemouth and HMS Gannet.

A climber died after falling at a popular Snowdonia crag.

The man fell while climbing on Valerie’s Rib on Craig Bwlch-y-Moch at the site at Tremadog.

Aberglaslyn Mountain Rescue Team was called out and 12 volunteer team members made their way to the site from their headquarters in nearby Porthmadog and directly to the scene, arriving within five minutes of the callout.

Langdale Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team was called out after a walker found a body at the foot of a crag on Blake Rigg, between Great and Little Langdale.

Police confirmed that the body was that of missing Blackpool man Chay Lancaster.

Lancashire Constabulary said the 41-year-old father of three, who disappeared in September 2010, was believed to have had an accident while walking in the Lake District.

The body of a caver was found after a major operation involving rescuers from across the UK.

The man, from Leicestershire, got into difficulties while cave diving in the Aber Las mine in north Wales.

North Wales Cave Rescue Organisation was called to the scene, where the diver had collapsed beyond a flooded section of the disused slate mine.

North Wales CRT requested the help of the Clapham-based Cave Rescue Organisation in North Yorkshire and a major rescue exercise began.

As well as the two cave rescue teams, the operation involved North East Wales Search and Rescue, Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation, the Cave Diving Group, Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association, a Sea King helicopter from RAF Leconfield, and North Wales Fire and Rescue Service.

Rescuers searching for a missing hillwalker on a Hebridean island found a body.

Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team joined Coastguard and Police Scotland officers in the search on Rùm.

A walker died after collapsing on England’s third highest mountain.

The 64-year-old man from Lincoln suffered a cardiac arrest today on Helvellyn Little Man, a short distance below the summit of the 950m (3,120 ft) peak.

Patterdale and Keswick Mountain Rescue Teams were called out and the Great North Air Ambulance Pride of Cumbria helicopter was scrambled.

An air ambulance spokesperson said fellow walkers performed cardio-pulmonary resuscitation on the man at the scene but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

September

A woman died while mountaineering in the Cairngorms.

Emergency services were alerted to the incident when they received reports of someone injured near the Pygmy Ridge in Coire an t-Sneachda on Cairn Gorm.

Jane Doole, 61, of Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire, was climbing with a friend when she was caught in a rockfall.

A man whose body was recovered by mountain rescuers was formally identified.

A walker found the body of Glenn Hartill, 53, in Brandlehow Park, on the western shore of Derwent Water, Borrowdale.

Keswick Mountain Rescue Team was called out help recover the Middlesbrough man’s body, but an urgent callout to a severely ill wild camper in the Central Fells meant that Cockermouth Mountain Rescue Team took over the task.

October

A walker died after falling 50ft down a cliff while on a Ramblers’ trip on the south coast of England.

The 68-year-old was taking part in a walk organised by HF Holidays when she fell 15m from a path near Worth Matravers on the Isle of Purbeck.

Her fellow walkers raised the alarm and a Coastguard helicopter airlifted her from the cliff foot and flew her to Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester, but she was pronounced dead.

The walker was part of a group from Amersham Ramblers in Buckinghamshire which was visiting the area when the incident happened.

The body of a walker was discovered by rescuers looking for a woman who had gone missing while with a group in the Lake District.

Wasdale and Duddon and Furness Mountain Rescue Teams were called out on Friday afternoon to search for the woman in the Wast Water area.

The walkers were on the fell by the Over Beck gorge, in the shadow of Yewbarrow.

November

A walker fell to his death from Malham Cove.

David Longbottom was killed in the fall at the 80m (260ft) limestone crag in the Yorkshire Dales.

The 72-year-old, from Ossett in West Yorkshire, was walking in the area when he was seen to fall.

Members of the Cave Rescue Organisation recovered Mr Longbottom’s body.

A body was found by rescuers searching for a man missing in the Angus Glens.

A major search involving three mountain rescue teams and 240 Royal Marines was mounted after serving Commando Luke Ireland went missing.

The 20-year-old member of 45 Commando failed to return to a run in the hills around Loch Brandy in Glen Clova.

Braemar, Tayside and Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Teams were joined in the search in appalling weather by fellow Royal Marines and a Police Scotland helicopter last night.

December

Mountain rescuers were joined by seven search dogs and fire and rescue service crews in a search for a missing 81-year-old man in Cumbria.

The search was sparked when some of the man’s possessions were found by a member of the public at Lacy’s Caves on the banks of the River Eden.

Police called out Penrith Mountain Rescue Team at 6pm on Wednesday and 20 volunteers from the team searched the river banks and wooded areas near the caves, north of Little Salkeld near Penrith.

Cumbria Constabulary named the man as John Michael Parry, aged 81, of Penrith.

Mr Parry had been charged with murdering his wife and had then gone missing after being bailed.

The body of Meryl Parry, 80, was found on 2 September at a house in Ainstable, near Carlisle.

Away from tragedies, in July, a mountain rescue team stationed high on a Yorkshire Dales pass in preparation for the Tour de France had to deal with two cycling accidents.

Swaledale Mountain Rescue Team provided cover on the Butter Tubs Pass, between Swaledale and Wensleydale.

The 526m (1,726ft) pass is on the route taken by riders on the first day of the tour’s Grand Départ.

The team’s volunteers dealt with riders from two bikes who crashed on the Butter Tubs road.

They were treated by Swaledale MRT members and ambulance crews. One rider was stretchered to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and flown to hospital.

A few hours later another cyclists rode into a crash barrier on the pass at high speed, stopping just short of a 90m (300ft) drop.

A former High Court judge’s report into the death of a schoolboy when he was mauled by a polar bear on an Arctic expedition found safety equipment did not work and firearms training was inadequate.

Horatio Chapple, 17, died when a polar bear dragged him from his tent in a British Schools Exploring Society camp on Spitsbergen in 2011.

A tripwire warning system failed to operate and a leader tried unsuccessfully four times to shoot the animal. Michael Reid, who was 29 at the time, and the group’s science leader, was seriously injured himself by the bear, but managed to reload a rifle and kill the bear with a single shot.

Sir David Steel’s report said Mr Reid’s bravery probably saved other members of the group from more serious injury or death.

Campaigners welcomed the coalition Government’s announcement that it would create a coast path around the Isle of Wight.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said it would include the island in the England Coast Path, which Natural England is establishing.

But walkers will have to wait some time for the whole of the Isle of Wight’s coast to be opened up: Defra said it would continue with its programme for establishing 40 per cent of the all-England path under the Marine and Coastal Access Act before it looks at the island’s access.

The climate-change sceptic minister in charge of England’s outdoors was sacked by Prime Minister David Cameron, to be replaced by a rising star from the Conservative Party.

Liz Truss was appointed Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, replacing Owen Paterson, who courted controversy over the badger cull, flooding and global warming.

Ms Truss moved from the Department for Education to become the youngest ever female cabinet minister.

A mountain expert warned hillwalkers and climbers to make sure they keep properly hydrated when they headed out during summer.

Lack of water can be dangerous, leading to poor performance and decision making, the Mountaineering Council of Scotland’s safety officer said.

And the best indicator is not thirst, but the colour of your pee.

A mountain rescue team had a double shot of history as members gathered to celebrate its half century.

Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team’s former deputy leader fired two rounds from a shotgun, to mark the 50th anniversary of its formation – the original signal to call out volunteer member to muster for a rescue.

Guests joined current and past members at Patterdale Hall to celebrate the team’s first 50 years.

Record-breaking mountaineer Alan Hinkes reopened one of England’s remotest youth hostels by leading a walk from a neighbouring hostel.

The Yorkshire climber, the only Briton to have successfully summited the world’s 14 highest peaks, officially declared Black Sail hostel open after a £325,000 refurbishment.

The building, a former shepherd’s bothy at the head of Ennerdale, is only accessible by walking or by bike.

Hinkes, who said it is his favourite youth hostel, walked the 3½ miles from YHA’s Ennerdale hostel to the refurbished building, with staff, volunteers, YHA members and 47 children from the local primary school.

A hotel was installed on England’s highest mountain.

But the temporary structure was only for birds, as part of an art installation that involved a procession of walkers in avian outfits making the ascent of Scafell Pike.

The ‘highest art in England’ featured Alice Francis’s Hilltop Rest Hotel. Cumbria Tourism said it would open for one week only in September.

“A procession of bird-costumed hikers will climb to the summit and ceremoniously stake the hotel to the top of the summit cairn, where the boutique hotel will provide a welcome break for nature-loving and travel weary birds,” a spokesperson said.

A charity fundraiser made a unique ascent of Wales’s highest mountain.

West Midlands man Stuart Kettell pushed a brussels sprout up Snowdon with his nose, in a whacky challenge he hoped to complete in four days.

The 49-year-old made his ascent of the 1,085m (3,560ft) mountain to raise cash for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Mr Kettell, of Balsall Heath, is no stranger to bizarre fundraising escapades for the charity. Over the past few years he has run the equivalent of seven marathons in seven days in a giant hamster wheel, cycled on a penny-farthing from Land’s End to John O’Groats, and walked 500 miles round Coventry on stilts.

August

A mountain rescue team volunteer lost £2,500 of equipment along with his campervan in a theft.

James Burt of the Border Search and Rescue Unit had his personal mountaineering gear stolen in the incident, along with a team radio and other specialised equipment.

Among the items that disappeared was a brand-new team jacket bought after a fundraising campaign. The gear was kept in the VW Transporter van outside his Edinburgh home so he could respond immediately to callouts.

He was planning to use the van for a family holiday.

Kensington Palace announced Prince William was to take up a new job as an air ambulance pilot.

The Duke of Cambridge, who is patron of Mountain Rescue England and Wales, was due take up his post with the East Anglian Air Ambulance in spring next year.

The duke, who is second in line to the throne, was previously a search and rescue helicopter with the RAF, based at Anglesey, and took part in rescue missions to walkers and climbers in Snowdonia and further afield.

Mountain experts warned walkers in the Cairngorms they faced difficulties after a bridge was washed away.

The Mountaineering Council said torrential rain has lifted a bridge from its foundations and swept it down the Derry Burn in Glen Derry.

Walkers using the route to access the Lairig Ghru would find their way impassable until normal river levels resumed.

Mountaineers said their views were being ignored by a national park trying to make Wales’s highest mountain ‘safe’.

The British Mountaineering Council said Snowdonia National Park Authority’s attempts were misguided and risk misleading the public into thinking Snowdon is just another tourist attraction.

The council, which represents hillwalkers and climbers in England and Wales, said people needed to be taught the skills to use mountains and criticised a Snowdonia authority statement saying taking children up the highest hills could put them off the outdoors.

The boss of Britain’s oldest national park announced he was stepping down.

Jim Dixon resigned as chief executive of the Peak District authority, to pursue new roles outside the park.

Climbing elder statesman Sir Chris Bonington successfully ascended the Old Man of Hoy at the age of 80, 48 years after posting the first climb of the Orcadian sea stack.

Fellow Berghaus climber Leo Houlding, who joined Sir Chris in the ascent of the 450ft rock column, said: “The old man was amazing on the Old Man.”

Sir Chris, who turned 80 a few weeks ago, made the climb to mark his eight decades and to raise funds for motor neurone disease, which claimed his wife Wendy’s life the previous month.

A two-week survey carried out by mountaineers on the UK’s highest mountain led geologists to revise their theories on its origins.

A team of scientists and climbers braved the remnants of Hurricane Bertha during the project on the North Face of Ben Nevis.

It was described by one of its organisers as one of the most extensive and logistically challenging surveys to have taken place on a Scottish mountain.

Record-breaking British mountaineer Kenton Cool announced his next big challenge: the Himalayan Trilogy.

The Gloucestershire based climber, who has summited Everest more than any other UK mountaineer, will attempt the world’s three highest summits in three months.

Cool, who last year completed a new Himalayan ‘Three Peaks’ in a continuous expedition, will again try to set a record.

His successive climbs of Everest, Nuptse and Lhotse in one trip last year had never previously been achieved.

Now, the 41-year-old will tackle Everest, K2 and Kanchenjunga, the three highest mountains on the globe.

He has dubbed the challenge the Himalayan Trilogy.

September

The country’s biggest walkers’ charity welcomed the coalition Government’s announcement of a completion date for the England Coast Path.

The Ramblers said they were overjoyed by the news that extra investment will see the full 3,000 miles (4,830km) of the country’s coastline opened up to the public by 2020.

The campaigning charity said previous timetables had only outlined work on the project up to 2016 and, with fears that progress could stall, there was no date for completion in sight.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s announcement of an end date was applauded by the Ramblers, who said it was a victory for its pressure on the matter.

Britain’s national mapping agency was considering abandoning a system of co-ordinates on its maps first devised more than 180 years ago.

Ordnance Survey sought views on changing its latitude and longitude markers to a system used by most GPS devices.

The organisation stressed it is not changing its national grid references, which are used by most outdoor enthusiasts, but may change the lat and long datum to the WGS84 model, in recognition that most users now refer to that, rather than its present Airy 1830, which was devised by Britain’s Astronomer Royal in the 19th century.

Two climbing veterans were appointed patrons of the British Mountaineering Council.

Pat Littlejohn and Mick Fowler joined a select group that includes two Everest summiteers and a member of the House of Lords.

The BMC said the two men have immense records of climbing and mountaineering achievements, and have set standards for difficulty and adventure for the best part of four decades.

Mountain rescuers spent two hours freeing a dog which fell down a cleft in rocks at a popular climbing venue in North Yorkshire.

Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Organisation was called by police after Sophie, a 21-month-old boxer, fell 25ft into a hole at Guisecliff in Nidderdale.

A national park authority received an application for the world’s biggest potash mine close to the route of Alfred Wainwright’s Coast to Coast Walk.

North York Moors National Park Authority said it believed the planning application, for the site near Whitby, is the largest ever submitted to an English national park.

York Potash withdrew its initial application last year, and submitted amended plans.

The proposals include two mine shafts 1,500m deep and a 37km-long tunnel to convey the mined polyhalite to the Wilton works on Teesside.

October

Stu Thompson released his film of Danny MacAskill’s incredible ride along the knife edge of the Cuillin Ridge, which became an overnight YouTube success, with over 1.6 million views.

The movie gave a new meaning to the cycling term King of the Mountains.

A national park authority opened consultations on plans that would restrict wild camping in many areas along the shores of its lochs.

Loch Lomond and the Trossachs authority planned to extend the ban which currently exists on the east shore of Loch Lomond to most of the opposite shoreline, and many other lochs in the park.

The authority said the measures were necessary to protect the environment from damage and nuisance caused by anti-social camping and points to an 81 per cent drop in anti-social behaviour along the eastern side of Loch Lomond since it introduced a ban on camping outside of designated areas in 2011.

Charity challenge walks came under the spotlight at a gathering organised by the British Mountaineering Council.

More than 60 delegates at the meeting at Rheged near Penrith in Cumbria heard the pros and cons of staging challenges on Britain’s mountains.

Presentations were given by large-scale event organiser the Original Mountain Marathon and outdoor provider Raw Adventures who take groups into the mountains to take on team, corporate and charity challenges in a responsible manner.

The conference also heard from the Institute of Fundraising, the Snowdonia Society and the Lake District footpath and bridleway conservation body Fix the Fells.

Residents in a Lake District village said they were concerned at plans for a mile-long zipwire in the shadow of England’s third highest mountain.

The company behind the scheme, Treetop Trek, said the location at Glenridding was only one of several possible sites they are considering for the tourist attraction.

Residents attending a public meeting called by Patterdale Parish Council heard the zipwire, which would allow participants to slide at speed towards Glenridding, could stretch from the area near Greenside hostel to the village’s car park.

After overwhelming opposition, the plans would be withdrawn.

Two British climbers posted a first ascent of a route in the Indian Himalaya.

Mick Fowler contacted his sponsors Berghaus briefly on a dodgy connection to say he and his climbing partner Paul Ramsden had successfully climbed the North-East Face of Hagshu.

The 6,515m (21,375ft) peak lies in the East Kishtwar region and has only been climbed twice, in the same year 25 years ago. The North-East Face route had never been successfully scaled.

A caving club celebrated its 50th anniversary by opening a new training area at its Yorkshire Dales base.

The Yorkshire Subterranean Society unveiled a new rope training facility at the site.

The two-storey extension to its Helwith Bridge headquarters contains a warm, dry area with platforms, beams and bolts to allow up to six cavers at a time to practise modern caving techniques.

A walker from the flatlands of Cambridgeshire became the first man to complete a round of all 1,556 marilyn hills.

Rob Woodall of Peterborough bagged his final peak – a sea stack in the remote Outer Hebridean archipelago of St Kilda.

Not far behind the 54-year-old was 66-year-old Cumbrian Eddie Dealtry, who summited Stac Lee about an hour later.

At first it appeared Wales’s highest mountain Snowdon, or Yr Wyddfa might be up for a metre’s worth of promotion, but Britain’s national mapping agency is very strict about what constitutes a mountain’s top.

The trio of amateur hills sleuths who lug their very professional GPS measuring equipment to various mountains had their eye on Snowdon for a while. John Barnard, Graham Jackson and Myrddyn Phillips escaped the Snowdonia crowds for a night on one of the UK’s best trodden peaks.

Although their measurements from the summit showed it was 67cm above the stated height, because the structure on the mountain top is man-made, the official altitude of the peak would remain the same.

Mountaineers urged the Nepalese Government not to allow the installation of ladders and fixed ropes near the summit of Everest.

Authorities had touted the placing of aluminium ladders and ropes on the Hillary Step, one of the few technical climbing areas on the most popular ascent route of the world’s highest mountain.

But doing so would devalue the achievement of those who manage to reach the summit, and climbing the mountain should be the preserve of those with the skills and experience, the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation said.

The charity that looks after almost 100 mountain shelters got a new chairman.

Simon Birch was elected to head the Mountain Bothies Association after the previous holder of the post John Arnott stepped down.

Mr Birch, of Bristol, has hands-on experience with the association, as maintenance organiser for Camban bothy in Glen Affric.

The boss of a Scottish national park announced she was stepping down.

Loch Lomond and the Trossachs chief executive Fiona Logan said she was leaving the authority to take up a post with private-sector company.

Ms Logan had been in charge of the national park since 2008, during which she oversaw the controversial wild camping ban on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond and the recent plans to extend bans on campers on almost all the national park’s loch shores.

Rescuers battled 80mph winds to go to the aid of two walkers lost in the dark after summiting England’s third highest mountain.

Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team was called out after police alerted them to the plight of the pair who had become disoriented after ascending Helvellyn.

The Naked Rambler Stephen Gough failed in an appeal to a European court against a breach of his human rights.

Gough, 55, of Eastleigh, Hampshire argued that his right to respect for human life and freedom of expression had been denied by his repeated arrests for going without clothes in public.

But seven judges at the European Court of Human Rights ruled unanimously against his appeal, saying he was responsible for his treatment because of his repeated refusal to obey the law over a number of years.

November

National park planners threw out plans for a ‘welcome hub’ on common land in the Lake District.

Britain’s oldest conservation charity said the proposals were more suited to Legoland than Lakeland.

The proposals submitted by Jim Lowther, brother of the eighth Earl of Lonsdale, were rejected by 12 votes to two by the Lake District National Park Authority’s development committee.

Mr Lowther, on behalf of the giant Lowther Estate, was seeking permission to build the ‘hub’ at White Moss Common on the main Lakes road between Rydal Water and Grasmere.

The owner of a dog missing for nearly four days on England’s highest mountain said he was overjoyed at his safe return.

Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team members retrieved Jasper, a border collie belonging to Adam Nolan, from Scafell Pike in the early hours of Thursday.

The dog had been located by Geoff Horky who went up the 978m (3,209ft) mountain in the middle of the night after a reported sighting of the dog, who went missing near Cam Spout Crag on the Eskdale side of the fell.

A massive social media campaign followed, prompted by Mr Nolan, who made repeated searches of the area around Scafell Pike.

Mr Horky found Jasper about 2 o’clock in the morning and the volunteer rescue team was alerted.

Members then went up on to the mountain and brought the animal to meet his owner on Lingmell Col.

Wasdale Mountain Team benefited from an online donation page set up by Jasper’s owner after the volunteer rescuers helped bring his animal from Scafell Pike.

The search for the border collie went viral after his owner Adam Nolan enlisted the help of online communities to publicise his plight.

When Jasper was found, he set up a justgiving page which raised an astonishing £51,700.

A spokesperson for Wasdale MRT said the team was amazed at the generosity of people donating from all over the world.

A national park became the first in Britain to offer users a virtual off-road tour of its routes using Google Street View.

The online service is better known for its street-level views of the roads of the UK, but computer users could now see selected Peak District trails through Google’s website.

The images were taken by national park volunteers using Google’s Trekker cameras strapped to their backs.

Mountain bikers outraged at what they saw as the ruining a classic Peak District route managed to halt work on the track.

Work carried out on Rushup Edge by Derbyshire County Council was out of character with the area and destroyed a challenging route used by bikers, walkers and horse riders, activists said.

After protests and a campaign supported by the British Mountaineering Council and the Peak District National Park Authority, the county council has suspended ‘roadworks’ on the track, which runs above Edale.

The organisation that represents mountaineers, climbers and hillwalkers in England and Wales said it was determined to do more to represent the walking section of its membership.

Spurred by criticism that it is climber-dominated, the British Mountaineering Council appointed Carey Davies as its first hillwalking officer in April 2013.

Since then, Davies, a former journalist on The Great Outdoors magazine and a keen hillwalker, has worked hard to elevate the profile of hillwalking within the Manchester-based council, 87 per cent of whose members described the pastime as one of their main mountain activities.

But the council admits it still has some way to go. It recently appointed eight new ‘ambassadors’ – luminaries among the outdoor community whose job is to promote and explain the work of the BMC. Seven of those were climbers; just one, Chris Townsend, was a hillwalker.

Chief executive Dave Turnbull outlined ways the council would help hillwalkers in a talk at the Kendal Mountain Festival.

Two walkers rescued after getting stuck on steep ground in the dark returned to find their car had been broken into and their possessions stolen.

The pair were in a group of five who got into difficulties on Crinkle Crags, sparking a nine-hour operation to bring them to safety.

A large metal cross that stood at the summit of Ireland’s highest mountain was cut down.

The 5m (16ft) structure was erected on top of 1,038m (3,406ft) Carrauntoohil in 1976, but a group of walkers making the ascent to the peak discovered it had been cut at its base.

Gardaí said they were investigating the incident, which was described by nearby Beaufort Community Council as an act of vandalism.

A man who has summited all the Wainwrights four times clinched a top job in the Lake District.

Graham Uney beat 100 applicants to get the post of felltop assessor, climbing to the top of England’s third highest mountain seven days running to record weather and summit conditions.

He joined veteran Jon Bennett in the team of two who work alternate weeks trekking up 950m (3,117ft) Helvellyn to provide reports for the Lake District National Park Authority’s Weatherline during winter.

Each week involves ascending almost the equivalent of the height of Everest.

Autumn was the third warmest on record, the Met Office said.

Average autumn temperatures were 1.4C above long-term average at 10.8C.

The record was set in 2006 with 11.4C; second warmest was 11.3C three years ago.

December

Mountain rescue teams will be able to reclaim value added tax, the Chancellor announced.

George Osborne said search and rescue team and air ambulance charities will be eligible for VAT refunds from next April.

He made the announcement in his autumn statement to Parliament.

A seasoned mountaineer and adventurer took over at the head of a major Scottish conservation charity.

Peter Pearson was appointed chair of the John Muir Trust, which owns land including much of the summit of Ben Nevis.

Mr Pearson, who lives in the shadows of the Ochils, has for decades explored Scotland’s hills and mountains.

A staggering wind speed of 144mph was recorded on a remote Scottish archipelago with a reputation for being the UK’s windiest place.

St Kilda, 66km (41 miles) west of Benbecula, saw the wind approach 150mph as a so-called weather bomb passed over the North-West of the UK.

The top speed was recorded on top of the hill on Hirta, the largest island in the isolated archipelago, which is in the care of the National Trust for Scotland, and on which gales can be expected for 75 days of the year.

A woman who led teams reducing flood risks across England was appointed boss of the Peak District National Park Authority.

Sarah Fowler took over the post from Jim Dixon, who has held the position since 2003.

Ms Fowler joins the national park as chief executive at a time of continuing financial cutbacks imposed by the coalition Government.

She will take up her position at the end of January.

A footpath up a munro on the Isle of Skye was restored using a grant and donations from supporters.

The 3.8km (2¼-mile) route up Blàbheinn had become badly eroded and scarred.

The John Muir Trust won £24,000 in an online poll organised by the European Outdoor Conservation Association towards the costs.

The Scottish Government should consider regulating mountain guides, a sheriff said.

Sheriff Derek Pyle made the recommendation following a fatal accident inquiry into the death of Graham Paterson two years ago on the Isle of Skye.

Mr Paterson, who had 20 years mountaineering experience and was a former member of the Skye Mountain Rescue Team, was fatally injured in a fall on the Cuillin in December 2012, while he was guiding a Bristol teacher on a route in Coire na Banachdich on Sgurr Dearg.

Outdoor enthusiasts gathered at a lochside site to honour the memory of a Scottish walking and climbing legend.

A statue of the late Tom Weir was unveiled at Balmaha Bay on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond.

A musical tribute to the climber, outdoorsman and campaigner was also planned, with writers and broadcasters including Cameron McNeish and Jimmie MacGregor, musician Alistair MacDonald and sculptor Sean Hedges-Quinn joining the event.

An elder statesman of British mountaineering revealed his distress at the loss of his wife as he clocked up 80 years in August.

Sir Chris Bonington celebrated his eight decades on this earth by repeating his 1966 ascent of the Old Man of Hoy, the 450ft sea stack on Orkney, this time in the company of 34-year-old climber Leo Houlding.

He was close to tears as he recounted how much he relied on Wendy. He also shared his thoughts on life, death, close escapes and the climbers he rates as among the best.

A man who helped establish Scotland’s first national park was appointed its chief executive.

Gordon Watson will step up from his post as director of operations to head Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority in January.

He will replace Fiona Logan who is taking a job with ‘people development company’ Insights.