Piers Gill, scene of the rescue. Photo: KA CC-BY-SA-2.0
Two walkers were rescued in a six-hour operation after getting lost while coming down from England’s highest mountain.
The pair phoned for help yesterday, Saturday, and Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team members went to the aid of the walkers who were making their way down from Scafell Pike.
The team received the call from police about 5.55pm. 11 rescuers set out to find the pair as darkness fell.
A team spokesperson said: “They were fortunate in being able to get an intermittent mobile phone signal to the police so the team headed to the area indicated by their GPS and found they had strayed down the side of Piers Gill.
They were found high on the left bank of the gill, fortunately uninjured although rather cold.”
The pair were accompanied by Wasdale MRT members back down to their car in Wasdale about midnight.
The callout was the Wasdale team’s eighth of the year.
Piers Gill is one of two ‘accident blackspots’ recognised by Wasdale MRT on the Scafell range.
The gill often tempts walkers on the Corridor Route descending from Scafell Pike but the route down its flank is challenging, with scrambling and difficult route finding in poor visibility.
The team recommends the rough path on the gill-side only for experienced fellwalkers. The lower reaches of the gill itself are a grade-one scramble but its upper reaches involve serious rockclimbing.
Michael Graham
04 March 2012Why not put a sign at the top of the gill where it ''tempts walkers''. A young man died there recently and there have been others. A sign saying 'no path' and directing walkers to the corridor route could save lives and the time of the MRT.
Terry Glover
04 March 2012On two occasions last year I found myself acting as guide for
walkers' who where unsure on the direction of decent when they where caught in cloud and mist (all had map and compass.)
I am myself a keen fell walker/scrambler and have been for the last thirty years, on many occasions I've had to really on cairns for reassurance when caught in bad weather.
I understand the view of others when they say we shouldn't
litter the fells with street furniture as it defeats the object: however, lives are at risk, we all make mistakes and a few
well designed signs are not going to make that much difference
to the visa.
Steve O
21 March 2015Two sides to every argument, way signs or not ? many people walk up Scafell Pike in all sorts of weather without incident, although many people carry map and compass, that doesn't mean they are comfortable in bad weather, using these 'tools'. it is a skill that needs constant honing.
Last year I was descending the 'normal route' back into Borrowdale, I was near Great End at the time, when I came across a well equipped, but puzzled looking party consulting a map, I had decided to stop and remove a layer, out of the westerly wind driven drizzle at last, when one of the party asked me if they were on the right path to Bowfell ? once I re -aligned their map for them, they then realised that it was a long plod back down to the crossroads, I left them in a mild squabble.
I'm certainly not a fan of sign posts on well trod paths, as most of these are in relatively safe places, but a discreet, but visible marker at the top of Piers Gill, might not be a bad thing, but then were do you stop, I couldn't imagine what the top of Ben Nevis would look like if every single danger on the tourist route was signposted,