A man has died after an accident on Broad Stand, on Scafell.
Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team (MRT) was alerted to the incident at 12.30pm yesterday. When the team arrived at the scene, the fellwalker was found to have suffered fatal injuries. His body was airlifted from the mountain by an RAF helicopter.
While dealing with the incident, the team was asked to assist a walker who had twisted his knee in nearby Deep Gill, a steep gully leading off Lord’s Rake. Ropes were used to help the walker to the top of the gill, from where he was evacuated to the valley bottom by the RAF helicopter.
He had no serious injuries.
The six-hour operation involved 18 members from Wasdale MRT and eight from the Cockermouth team.
In May last year, 59-year-old Andrew Peter Keely, of Ambleside, died after suffering serious head and chest injuries in an accident on Broad Stand, which is on the route between Scafell Pike and Scafell, above the Mickledore col.
Broad Stand is described by the Wasdale team as an accident blackspot, which is deceptively difficult for walkers. Alfred Wainwright described it in one of his Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells as ‘the greatest single obstacle confronting ridge-walkers on the hills of Lakeland’.
Broad Stand, though a rock climb, is rated ‘easy’. It has one particularly awkward move, and the rock at this crux point is polished and smooth, with a 9m (30ft) immediate drop if a fall occurs. A safer route at the crux is to move in away from the exposed edge into the corner of the rock, where there is less of a drop.
Samuel Coleridge reputedly recorded the first recreational rock climb in the district in 1802 by descending Broad Stand by hanging from its rock and dropping on to the narrow ledge below.
Less than a month ago, two fellwalkers were rescued from Deep Gill after getting themselves cragfast on a rockface above the gully.
- The dead man was named as 49-year-old David Woodland, of Gloucestershire.
John Le Roi
17 February 2008Heart-stopping story - very sobering for all walkers who love the hills. What were the contributing factors ? Ice ? Was he a sole walker ? Was he experienced ? Was his health good ? ( eg. heart condition)
grough editor
17 February 2008The Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team's report says: "Police paged the team to respond to an incident on Broad Stand, Scafell. "A group of five male walkers from the Midlands were descending from the summit of Scafell via the Broad Stand route when one of their party, a male in his late 40s, fell while climbing down the difficult rock step. He sustained fatal injuries. "He was airlifted by RAF Valley later that afternoon. "Twelve Wasdale team members were involved in the rescue along with a Langdale Ambleside member and team members from Cockermouth MRT called in to assist. The incident was closed at 6.30 p.m."
Uncle Grumpy
23 March 2008The famous Broad Stand catches many hillwalkers unaware. I've climbed up it numerous times. With a steady nerve and a level head, it presents no great difficulty. Having said this I would not touch it if the rock is wet. I worry about the bank holiday crowds on Mickledore and the ill prepared who are tempted onto dangerous ground. Wasdale Mountain Rescue will never be short of work.
Iain Cairns
01 June 2008Those old words ring true "look well to each step" And I do wish that people would wear a helmet when doing an easy scramble it would save lives and a hell of alot of pain.