Rescuers and other organisations gather to launch the autumn safety campaign
Volunteers from the Lake District’s mountain rescue teams gathered to kick-start a safety campaign to reduce the number of callouts.
The teams in the area have dealt with more than 500 incidents this year, a rise of more than 60 on pre-pandemic figures.
The Lake District Search and Mountain Rescue Association, the umbrella body for the 12 teams in Cumbria, launched its autumn safety campaign at a Bowness-on-Windermere venue.
The teams are promoting the Adventure Smart safety awareness message, a simple three-point checklist for those heading for the outdoors:
Do I have the right gear?
Do I know what the weather will be like?
Am I confident that I have the knowledge and skills for the day?
Richard Warren, chair of the association, said its 400 volunteers have had to deal with an increasing number of callouts: “The summer season has come to an end and our mountain rescue volunteers look forward to an easing of callouts following another extremely busy year, especially those covering the central fells.
“During the year our volunteers have helped over 600 people who have been injured, suffered medical emergencies or suffered distress.
“This has involved over 4,000 team member responses all who have attended without question and without any payment, keeping our free service alive.
“As winter approaches and the clocks go back at the end of October, we again focus on the simple message of map, compass, torch and know how to use them.”
He said a quarter of callouts are due to walkers becoming lost and overdue, and would be avoidable with good planning and preparation.
Mr Warren added that for the past six years the volunteer teams, who are all charities, have heavily invested their time and funds, both from individual donations and more recently with help from Local Resilience Forum partners, pushing the AdventureSmart safety awareness messages.
The launch was held at Lake View Garden Bar in Bowness.
The association chair said: “It was a great opportunity to relaunch our safety-awareness leaflets, meet our corporate supporters, emergency service colleagues, mountain rescue colleagues and friends from across Cumbria.”
The rescuers have also set up an online merchandise page on the Coniston Corporate UK website.
AdventureSmart is supported by more than 100 organisations in the outdoor recreation and tourism section. Its aim is to reduce the number of avoidable incidents which the rescue and emergency services deal with each year by establishing a comprehensive set of safety messages and to work with the outdoor sector to promote them.
