High Gillerthwaite youth hostel. Photo: Bob Jenkins CC-BY-SA-2.0

Mountain rescuers were called to a remote youth hostel to rescue visitors stranded by snow and ice.

Police contacted Cockermouth Mountain Rescue Team about 9.45 this morning to request help to evacuate 19 people from the High Gillerthwaite youth hostel in Ennerdale.

The hostel, beneath Red Pike, is served only by a forest track and is 3km (2 miles) from the nearest road.

Nine members of the rescue team used three of their vehicles to take the stranded hostellers to Whitehaven where they were able to catch a train to Carlisle and on to their home in Newcastle.

The party’s cars and luggage had to be left at the youth hostel and the visitors are expected to return to collect them when the weather permits.

Elsewhere in the Lake District, the Langdale and Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team spent six hours on Sunday helping the ambulance service reach patients as heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures hit the area, in common with much of Britain.