Cumbria Police passed on a call from a party of three reporting themselves lost on Helvellyn. The Team was placed on standby, but from the GPS data on the 999 call it was clear that the group were close to the path between Lower Man and Whiteside Bank.

The Duty Leader spoke to the party, provided reassurance and directed them back to the path. The party was asked to share their live location via WhatsApp to allow monitoring of their progress. When the party was on the track to Greenside the Team was stood down.

The Team was contacted by Cumbria Police following a report that a man was possibly in trouble on Helvellyn. He had been reported missing by his wife who had been tracking his progress from home and noticed that his position hadn’t changed for a few hours.

Contact was made with the informant and it was established that the man was out on his bike with his black labrador. The police located his vehicle in Grasmere where he had been staying. The Team requested the assistance of Search Dogs, Keswick MRT and LAMRT to search the various routes up to the location close to the summit of Helvellyn being communicated by the man’s phone.

Low cloud and high winds prevented the Coastguard Helicopter from joining the search. At about 01:00 hours, battling atrocious weather, Patterdale and Keswick Team Members managed to find the man’s bike and phone close to the edge of the summit plateau. However, there was no sign of the man or his dog. At around 01:30 hours, with conditions deteriorating, the difficult decision was made to call off the search until first light.

The last party cleared the fell at about 03:30 hours. Day 2 At 08:00 hours members from Cockermouth, Penrith, Kirkby Stephen and Patterdale Teams resumed the search. A rope system was set-up to enable them to descend the headwall to facilitate a search of the area where the man was suspected to have fallen. In the late morning it was confirmed that the dog had been found alive and well on a ledge.

Shortly afterwards the man was located, and it was confirmed that he had died as a result of the injuries sustained in his 180 metre fall. The casualty was recovered and transported back to Patterdale Base to be handed over to Cumbria Police.

The Team was asked to investigate a report of lights on the fellside. A party walking above Aira Force had observed a light appearing to flash some miles away towards the Dodds. There was no pattern to the flashing and the light appeared to be moving, occasionally disappearing completely.

A Team Member in the area observed a light descending Great Dodd towards High Row. From the rate of descent, it was believed to be a mountain biker. Since the area has phone reception and no further request for assistance was received the incident was closed.