A 14-month-old baby was among a family party rescued from the flanks of Scafell Pike.

40 Mountain Rescue Team (MRT) members were involved in the search for the missing family of four, who had got lost descending England’s highest peak.

All four, from Bude in Cornwall, were unharmed after their ordeal, which began on Monday night when they took a wrong turn coming off the mountain and ended up in Piers Gill at the head of Wasdale. The group also included a five-year-old boy.

Teams from Wasdale, Duddon and Furness and Keswick joined the search, along with a search-and-rescue dog, after a fellow fellwalker reported the family missing. He had spoken to the group on the summit of the 978m mountain, but saw that their car had still not moved after nightfall. He alerted the rescue services then went looking for the family himself. His actions were praised by Wasdale MRT leader Julian Carradice: “It gives you faith that there are still people out there who will put effort into looking out for other people even though they had never met them before.”

The family was found, cold and wet, in the deep ravine of Piers Gill around midnight. Rescue team members said the baby, who was in a papoose, slept through the ordeal, but the five-year old needed carrying down from the fell.