The Bad Step on Crinkle Crags, from where the walkers were rescued. Photo: Mick Garratt CC-BY-SA-2.0

Mountain rescuers say walkers are taking to the Lakeland hills without the skills to find their way safely off the fells.

Langdale and Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team was asked to help two separate parties stuck on Crinkle Crags yesterday, Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the team said: “It remains a frustration that people are going in to the hills without the full set of skills to get them up and back down, or the ability to make good judgement calls and avoid trouble.”

The team was alerted yesterday at 5.25pm to a group of six walkers stuck on the 859m (2,818ft) fell, unable to find Three Tarns, which lie on the col between Crinkle Crags and Bowfell and are the start of a descent route via The Band to the valley in Great Langdale.

The walkers were able to retrace their route to the Bad Step, the awkward short scramble on Long Top, but could not make their way down it or around it.

The spokesperson said: “They were told to stay at the top of the Bad Step and team members recovered them from there.”

Earlier in the day, the Langdale and Ambleside team had managed to talk down two walkers who had become lost on the fell.

The rescue of the six men involved nine team members and took four hours.