Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team - Cragfast Walker Great Gulley

Wasdale MRT were asked to assist a 34 year old male fellwalker who had taken a wrong turning when descending from Whin Rigg, at the top of the Wasdale Screes. He had become cragfast in Great Gully in a particularly inaccessible area and local knowledge of this very difficult and unstable ground was essential to reach him. An attempt to reach him by climbing up the gulley was found to be impossible due to the wet, slippery and very unstable nature of the rock. The rescue was therefore moved to an ascent via the ramp and terraces to enter the gulley from above the cragfast walker and descend by abseil to his location. He was found to be uninjured and was lowered down the gully using 200 metres of rope before being taken back to his vehicle at Wasdale Head.
The Wasdale Screes are extremely unstable and subject to constant rockfalls. This is the second rescue in 4 weeks from almost exactly the same place for exactly the same reason; a navigational error ending up in the middle of the crags unable to go either up or down. 17 team members were directly involved in the rescue which took 5 hours. The base was closed at 10.00 p.m.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Wasdale
• Mountain
• Rescue
• Lake
• District
• Richard
• Warren
• Cragfast
• Walker
• Great
• Gulley
• Screes