A Lake District rescue team was called out to a regular blackspot, just a week after it advised walkers to use an alternative route.
Keswick Mountain Rescue Team had to bring a pair of walkers to safety from Barf on Sunday after they got stuck on difficult ground.
It was the fourth rescue at the site this year and comes seven days after an almost identical incident. The team described the ‘abundant horridness’ of the ascent, which was detailed by celebrated guidebook author Alfred Wainwright.
At the time, rescuers urged walkers to ignore Wainwright’s route and use an easier alternative.
Keswick Mountain Rescue Team was alerted about 9.40am when two men called the team after getting stuck on the route. The pair then called back to say they could cope, only to ring again 16 minutes later when they got stuck above Slape Crag.
A team spokesperson said: “We went and did what we always do, and got them off. The previous comments about what an unpleasant route this is still apply.”
The diminutive peak rises to 468m (1,535ft) north-west of the hamlet of Thornthwaite and overlooks the southern reaches of Bassenthwaite Lake.
Wainwright’s ‘direct route’ up the fell, past the white-painted boulder known as The Bishop, is described in his sixth volume of the Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells as: ‘Not a walk. A very stiff scramble only for people overflowing with animal strength and vigour.’
After a rescue of a grandfather and his family last Sunday, the Keswick MRT spokesperson said walkers often find themselves at a difficult step at the foot of Slape Crag.
“Once they are there, they decide that they can’t retreat down what they climbed up.
“It’s worth emphasising the unpleasant nature of the scree on the route, the looseness of the surrounding rock, and the apparent lack of a clear escape route when it all goes wrong.
“Once you’ve read Wainwright’s description, you’re better off ignoring it, and finding the path that goes up through the forest on the south side of the gill, to come out above the waterfalls.
“That way, you won’t get stuck in the abundant horridness, and we won’t have to come and retrieve you.”
In his guidebook, Wainwright described this easier route to ascend Barf, via the forest path of Beckstones Plantation and Beckstones Gill, which he said was: ‘one of the very best of the shorter Lakeland climbs’.
The latest Barf rescue involved 10 Keswick MRT volunteers for almost two hours.
Veronica Williams
28 August 2017Stupidity full stop. behaving like naughty children who 9 times out of 10 are told l "do not go there, do not do that" they do it for out and out bloody mindedness. they are not concerned at putting anyone else in danger if they because "unstuck". start saying that if people ignore warnings such as this they will be charged for getting them down.
OldManOffTheHills
29 August 2017Why not put up signs warning of the danger as done at a few other sites. I know people should do more research rather than see it briefly listed as a possible Wainright route and then do it but a sign added by say the National Park Authority could save a lot of trouble.
Malcolm Grant Purvis
30 August 2017Yes, save valuable KMRT time and put a sign to the effect 'This route is not a walk. KMRT averages 6 rescues a year from it. It is over very steep, bad ground with a 'bad step' that requires rock climbing technique'. That, hopefully, should put off the ordinary walker. Although simply 'NO ROUTE' might be easier.
I drive past this every day and look up at it but, until I'd read all the MRT reports, it's so obviously 'bad ground' - exhausting scree with very steep heather covered rocks above, and the crag beyond that - it never occurred to me that anyone would actually try to get up it. Not even AW. In other words: look up at it from the road as you approach and you can there is no route - at least, no route for fellwalkers - much less children or dogs. Also, look on it in profile from the (AW's 'new') forest road, (the approach from the visitor centre), and the steepness (50+deg) and difficulties are obvious.
The Bishop Rock/Slape Crag route may indeed be a route for 'people overflowing with animal strength and vigour' (AW) but is not a route for anyone else.
As for the Beckstones Gill route being 'the very best of the shorter Lakeland climbs'(AW). Must have been different in the fifties when he did it. Back in February KMRT had to rope down a man who froze on the descent. I've always thought it the worse route I've ever been up. And after our summer of rain it's a mud slide. Living in the village as I do I regularly meet folks you've been up it and decided not to attempt the descent and have (wisely) come off the hill via Thornthwaite village to walk the mile back to their car.
As a commenter said on the prevous call-out report (the grandfather, daughter & granddaugher who froze at the bad step): 'I did it from the Visitor Centre'. The right choice. But AW doesn't cover that route so it's not in his little book. That's most likely because the WVC wasn't there when he was walking the fells!
Message to publisher: redact Barf 6.