Rescue teams in action over weekend

A south-coast climber was winched to a coastguard helicopter after becoming cragfast today.The 20-year-old man became stuck on a route 30m (100ft) above the sea at Anvil Point, Purbeck, Dorset.

Guided walks in Dales programme

Park authorities in the Yorkshire Dales have released details of activities in the area for the first half of next year.The programme includes plenty of guided walks in the national park, with themes ranging from herb and wild food identification to early morning birdspotting.Activities start in February, with the walking sessions beginning a month later with an open access land route around Cotterdale.

Rheged mountain exhibition shuts as numbers dwindle

The National Mountaineering Exhibition at Rheged, Cumbria, will close for good tomorrow, Christmas Eve.The museum’s owners failed to find funding for a cash injection for the exhibition, which has seen visitor numbers dwindle.

Peak teams rescue injured Kinder walker

Two mountain rescue teams came to the aid of a walker who slipped on ice on Kinder Scout in the Peak District.The 52-year-old injured his spine and pelvis in the fall above Jacob’s Ladder, on the Pennine Way on Friday.

Hypothermic walker among trio rescued from Snowdon

Three people were rescued from Snowdon after getting into trouble on the Pyg track.One of the three, who were all medical students from London, was evacuated by stretcher with hypothermia before being taken to the Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor.Twenty members of the Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team were involved in the operation, which took more than four hours.

Blencathra fall victim named

Police today named the man who died after a fall from Sharp Edge on Blencathra.He was Alan Sharples, aged 60, from Lancaster.

Pooh bridge footpath must be cleared, say planners

A developer has vowed to fight moves to make him remove an equestrian sand school blocking a path leading to the famous Pooh Sticks Bridge immortalised by author AA Milne.The local council says equestrian centre owner Ben Van Praagh has breached the terms of the original planning permission, and the sand school must be taken up.Pooh Sticks Bridge, in Ashdown Forest, near Hartfield, East Sussex, is the setting for the game played by Christopher Robin’s fictional animal friends Pooh and Piglet in the classic tale The House at Pooh Corner.

Cairn Gorm poo chute a success, say rangers

Cairn Gorm’s poo chute is helping keep the mountain clean, as the winter season gets underway.Mountaineers, many of whom bivvy in snow holes on the tops, were asked to use the facility, rather than burying human waste, the volumes of which were starting to cause problems in the fragile arctic wilderness of the mountain’s summit plateau.The poo chute was set up in November last year so walkers and climbers could seal their waste in specially designed bags and bottles and dispose of them in the tube, which was set up in the Cairngorm Ski Area car park.

Estate owner's grant cut after poisoning case

A landowner whose gamekeeper was convicted of trying to kill protected birds of prey has had his farm subsidy cut.The Scottish Executive has lopped nearly £8,000 from the European grant due to James McDougal, who employed George Aitken on his Borders estate near the Southern Upland Way.Aitken placed dead pheasants containing poison along with traps holding live pigeons on the moorland at Lauder in Berwickshire.