The walker was stretchered from the summit of Ingleborough. Photo: Bob Smith/grough
A lost walker attempting the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge was found suffering from severe hypothermia on a fell top by rescuers.
The 33-year-old man called for help after getting lost on Ingleborough.
The Cave Rescue Organisation was called out at 3.55pm on Saturday and encountered dense fog and very windy conditions during the night rescue which involved stretchering the man for 2.5km (1½ miles).
A team spokesperson said: “The walker was discovered by CRO on the very summit of Ingleborough and he was found to be suffering from severe hypothermia.
“Due to the extremely poor visibility CRO were unable to call on the help of a rescue helicopter for an emergency evacuation of the walker. A CRO doctor and other team members treated and carefully packaged the hypothermic walker before carrying him in a stretcher for 2.5km to a CRO 4×4 ambulance.
“He was then taken down a rough track to Ingleton village for transfer to hospital by road ambulance.”
The Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge involves summiting all Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough in a 39km (24-mile) circuit.
Mr S.Claus
25 December 2017How can you get lost on the summit? It is a small plateau.
You might come off the wrong way, but you can't get lost on top.
A basic understanding of navigation (i.e. which way is north) would at least get you to the correct end of the plateau.
Time to start charging numpties like this for the rescue cost.
And... if he is that inexperienced why on earth was he doing the three peaks in winter on his own.
Garsdale Girl
25 December 2017I think quite simply they don't realise when completing the Three Peaks you retrace your steps on Ingleborough summit, returning back to the Horton path. I guess most expect to descend a different way, instead of retracing their steps. Earlier this year a group of Three Peaks Walkers asked me near Ingleborough Cave "is this the way to Horton in Ribblesdale?" I ended up taking them from Clapham back to Horton. They had no map with them. I do hope the hypothermic casualty is ok but walking the 3 Peaks alone at this time of year isn't great.
John Manning
28 December 2017The causualty will have learned a lesson and will now hopefully pick up some skills before attempting again – and I hope he does – better equipped, better skilled, better informed and more capable.
IMHO, charges for rescue should never be introduced. If the threat of a bill, or the embarrasment of being branded a "numpty" dissuade someone from dialling 999 when they're in a fix, then all that will happen is that someone will die, for the sake of a call not made.
The MRT will still be called out, but to retrieve a body. Just as I'm sure they'd be happy if everyone had the skills to get themselves out of a fix, I'm sure that they would also rather they were called to save a life than have some die saving face.
Walk on the wild side
29 December 2017The casualty may well have learned a lesson. The problem is there are many more lemmings to follow.
The threat of a bill or being labelled a numpty (which I don't think is harsh enough when you are putting other peoples lives at risk) clearly doesn't dissuade idiots.
Have a search on youtube for daves wild camping. Needed to be pulled off Crib Goch. Why? inexperience and ineptitude. Rang mountain rescue because he was lost in the mist. Why was he up there when he can't navigate?
The only way to stop this is to make insurance compulsory.