Gwenda Merriot

Mountain rescuers looking for a missing fellwalker have called off their search after failing to find her in a nine-hour operation.

Gwenda Merriot, from Wilton near Marlborough in Wiltshire, was last seen by family members in a car park in the centre of Ambleside yesterday morning and the alarm raised when she failed to return to her car by the afternoon.

Police described the 60-year-old as an experienced fellwalker.

Five members of the Langdale and Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team called in a specialist dog and handler from the Bowland Pennine Mountain Rescue Team to try to trace the woman. Normal search and rescue dogs are trained to find single walkers or small groups by air scent.

But the specialised search dog Mij is trained to follow trails and used the scent from Ms Merriot’s seat belt to follow her route.

The search began at the Rydal Road car park where the walker’s car was left and Mij picked up scent in Rothay Park and various places around the town. Nick Owen of the LAMRT said: “The dog worked in the park and confirmed she had been in the park.”

“We then searched on Loughrigg and various other fells around the area: Great Rigg, Nab Scar, around High Sweden Bridge, but the dog didn’t indicate a trail at any of those.”

The police are continuing their inquiries and have asked members of the public, including walkers, to be on the lookout for Ms Merriot, who is described as 5ft 6in tall, slightly build, with short spiky salt-and-pepper hair.

She was last seen at 11.30am on Wednesday in the Rydal Road car park in the Lakeland town, wearing a blue and black top, brown walking boots and carrying a blue rucksack.

Ms Merriot had been rescued three days earlier on Bowfell after she was found collapsed and unconscious on the mountain’s summit.

Kendal Mountain Rescue Team joined 19 colleagues from the Langdale and Ambleside team in stretchering the woman from the 902m (2,959ft) fell. Rescuers requested helicopter evacuation because of the treacherous weather and the walker’s life-threatening condition but, despite three attempts by three different aircraft, none could reach the site and she was stretchered from the fell in a rescue that took nine hours.

A quantity of alcohol and painkillers was found at the site.