General News Stories - Past and Present - Updated 12 Aug 2006
A big thanks to Dave Foucault, Head of Projects at Fluor, Sellafield for their donation to the team following the successful underwater swim. Picture of Dave handing over the cheque to Peter Holburt, WMRT member and Rob Friend, WMRt member with Charles Potter and Rob Watkins who achieved this remarkable, one-off diveathon, in just over 5 hours - cheque handover here plus more photos of the event here
Thanks to everyone who helped raise over £8,500 towards team funds and replacement medical equipment. The fell race brought in £156 and photos and results are here. The Auction brought in £5,300 - Pay Pal £1 donations brought in £1,000 - Trail Magazine bidding for a weekend with the team was £315 - the underwater divathon has already brought in over £2,600 with more on the way - see photos of Charles and Rob here
Our Treasurer has received two donations from a gentleman in
Korea and would like to send him a receipt and letter of thanks - if you are
that anonymous donor then please email our Treasure - thank you for your support
to the team 
The main fundraising event for the year - helicopters / search dogs / flight simulator / how long to swim the lake (underwater!!) / bands / beer / auction of quality gear and clothing at low low prices - put it in your calendar and come and meet the team see here
There is an incentivised safety scheme called SAFECOP whereby a nominated charity each month receives a cheque for £400 from one of the contract services companies at Sellafield. The donation is made possible due to a zero accident record each month - more details and photos here
Every 3 years team members undertake their MRT casualty care examination. This year a group of around 16 have spent the last 3 months preparing for the exam. Those who sat the final stage on Sunday all passed.
Photos of the day and some of the training are shown here. Special thanks from the team to the doctors and helpers who made it all possible.
The team is taking a more proactive approach to raising the profile of Mountain Rescue. The recent news footage of the blizzards in Cumbria seems to have helped increase public awareness of the service and its wholly voluntary nature - what can be done to build on this success - see photos and article
The team was put on standby to assist the police and the ambulance service during the severe weather conditions. By 9.30 a.m. they were on their way to the first of many mercy missions see photos here
Each year team members organise a winter weekend. This year Ben Whitley arranged a great couple of days near Fort William - Creag Meagaidh was the Munro chosen by most of the gang see photos here
Thanks to Ben for organising a cracking good weekend
The annual flag day raised a whopping £1,589.86 (compare Dec '04 £1,350). A big thank you to all the team members, family and friends who turned out to help, and to the local community for their generosity.
The annual gathering of Fell and Rock plus the rest of the fell walking and mountaineering community gathers on Great Gable summit to give respect to those who lost their lives in past wars. Photos of the day
The rake is still in an unstable state with the fallen pillar deteriorating further and the headwall (what's left of it) ready to drop on unsuspecting walkers. If you do still want to do the rake then proceed with the greatest of care. It will not give you much warning when it decides to go so keep alert. Photo history updated today.
Postscript - Monday 8th August the team were called out to rescue 4 walkers who had become involved in a major rock fall, one was crag fast and although received a glancing blow from falling rocks was not injured.
As you climb up to Lingmel Col on your way to the summit of Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England you can be forgiven for being a little surprised .........see photos
Following this years Lingmel Dash fell race which is run to support the
team, Simon Yates, well know mountaineer and author will give a mountaineering
lecture at Wasdale Head.
6.00pm
The Barn - Wasdale Head
Tickets £5
Available on the door or in advance from Jen Fraser, 019467 25799
All proceeds to Wasdale MRT
The rake is still in an unstable state with the fallen pillar deteriorating further and the headwall (what's left of it) ready to drop on unsuspecting walkers. If you do still want to do the rake then proceed with the greatest of care. It will not give you much warning when it decides to go so keep alert. Photo history updated today. Please note that the helmets we were wearing were not for show.
The old concrete bridge that led to the Trust camp site and the Brackenclose Fell and Rock hut had been condemned as unsafe in late 2004. This meant closure until a replacement bridge could be constructed. This created major problems for not just Wasdale Hall farm, but also for campers, car parking and of course a longer walk (not much though) for rescuers. The replacement bridge is up and running even if still a temporary structure. At least it has solved the major traffic parking problems for those wishing to climb Scafell, Lingmel and Scafell Pike. Photos of the new temporary bridge here.
It's not often the team get to work on the big crags when the sun is shining. Some photographs of training on Esk Buttress
For the past 3 years the team has been working towards having a fleet of rescue vehicles that meets the needs of the team. This meant two identically kitted out Landrovers supported by a personnel carrier/ambulance with seat belts fitted for the safety of team members, particularly when responding to emergencies.
The results can be seen in the attached photographs
Over the last week Kendal MRT on behalf of all the Lake District teams has been co-ordinating an offer of help to the Asian Disaster. In addition to donating a 4 x 4 vehicle and a number of MRT personnel with specialist communication skills they are co-ordinating a donation of 210 handset radios, 40 vehicle sets and 8 Base stations. This weekend, the Wasdale team were pulling together their contribution of radios and getting them across to the Kendal Base where the are being set up. They may go out this week. All the radios are surplus to requirement Low Band following the changeover from Low to High last October. As such they were due to be returned to the police for disposal
In addition, the team offered its help to the police for evacuation of the public from the flood torn Carlisle. The team's rescue inflatable was made available but as of tonight the offer had not been taken up. The Carlisle incident control room at Carlton Hall, Penrith was keeping a close eye on things last night.
The team changes over from BT to Vodafone and at the same time gets a callout on the evening of the changeover - it all runs smoothly and we get to celebrate the New Year in addition to rescuing three lost walkers see here
The Great North Air Ambulance crews were given a detailed introduction to the capabilities of the Lake District's mountain rescue teams when they visited the Keswick MRT base on Saturday 11th December. In addition to presentations on all aspects of mountain rescue and it's funding, the fifteen GNAA team members, predominantly Para medics from the Appleby, Teeside and Blythe bases were split into three groups and given 30 minute sessions on Casualty Care capabilities, Team Equipment, Control Room. For photographs of the day see here.
The annual flag day raised a whopping £1,350. A big thank you to all the team members, family and friends who turned out to help, and to the local community for their generosity. We hope to pay you all back this coming June 25th and 26th 2005 when the team are carrying out a mountain rescue display on the harbour retaining wall.
Remembrance day 2004 will bring back memories to a few people. The 500 plus people who attended the 11 o'clock one minutes silence, the small group who raised money for the team and had their photo taken on the top, the rescue of the man who collapsed 30 minutes later and required helicopter evacuation from Green Gable ... check the links for the photos and stories
A fantastic £1615 pounds donated to the team following the broken ankle rescue, Yewbarrow,17 January 2004. Cheque presentation see here for the photos
A major callout in upper Eskdale involved three teams plus the search dogs - from 1915 hrs until 0400 hrs - all captured on camera see here for the photos
After some years of evaluation, the lake district's 12 teams finally changeover to high band. This is a national changeover which has been managed in partnership with the police. Wasdale changes it's vehicle radios over Saturday 25th in readiness for the 30th, the day of the big switchover ......photos see here
This annual fund raising event took place Saturday 27th - great success with over £400 raised - no incidents apart from in the morning where the team went out to look for a missing son on Scafell Pike. Results and photos here...
Having
been rescued by Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team the year before, in June 2003 we
decided to raise some money for them by embarking on a sponsored walk along the
Helvellyn Range, from Kirkstone Pass to Threlkeld. The walk was over 18 miles,
and involved crossing 13 peaks, including Fairfield, Helvellyn and Great Dodd,
so we set aside a full day and set off at 6am. We were hoping for a warm, sunny
day, but instead managed to pick what seemed the only day that month where the
fells were covered in hill fog. This meant that from the moment we climbed into
cloud halfway up Red Screes at 6.30am to the moment we finally came out of it
just before the final peak, Clough Head, 12 hours later, we were almost totally
reliant upon compass bearings (especially for the Dodds, where we had not walked
before). However it was good practice, especially as compass bearings and map
reading had proved a problem on the occasion that we had to be rescued! The
whole walk took a little over 13 hours, and resulted in very sore feet, but was
good fun despite the disappointing
weather. Here are some
pictures…
Team members are encouraged to check out potential accident spots for familiarisation and preparedness
see photos of the different pitches and their conditions
A key member of the Wasdale Mountain Rescue team went missing late
afternoon in the Cleator Moor area. The police were quickly notified and
it sparked off a massive hunt around the streets of the Moor ending in a find
early that evening. So why did 50 rescue friends turn up at the Leconfield
industrial estate.........why did 50% of the residents in Cleator Moor join the
search.......why is it that people were so friendly and helpful..............the
answer is in the 
Two members of the Wasdale team were in Scotland the week before our training weekend (see below) - whilst the dogs were full of life, the handlers seemed to have other things on their minds (photo printed with kind permission of either the handler himself or the handlers wife in the other case) see here also you should read the true-life rescue story involving Siney, Paul McCracken's trainee search dog which appeared (abbreviated version) on the front page of the Whitehaven news this week and is written in full on this website see here
Twelve members of the team travel to Glenmore Lodge in the Cairngorms to train in winter conditions see here
Did the training day filled with excitement, top gun helicopters and top movie stars (well Julian anyway) be sufficient to warm the icy coolness of the BBC controller, thereby releasing the funds to do the series
- look at the shots of the day here
Penny Kirby's trainee search dog Pippa passed with flying colours at SARDA's New Year's Eve Assessment day.
Santa came to Whitehaven and helped raise £1378.23p for the team. Slightly down on last years £1520 but still a fantastic effort by the team members (and their dogs). A big thank you to Whitehaven and the surrounding district see photos here
They had watched rescue No. 25 from the safety of Scafell Summit; Rescue No.26 was happening whilst they descended; 1 hour later they became No. 27 - see callout details and true life story here
The faces behind the names - who are those people you met on the rescue? What do they do when they are not rescuing? How long have they been around? Over the next few months we will add pictures of the team members who previously have just been names on a list - see members page and follow the links in the yellow box or click here - note more pictures will be added as permissions are sought and granted.
The pillar is still there but looking worse for wear and not a pleasant place to be. see new photos
The 106th anniversary event celebrated with another massive auction of outdoor gear. Over £6,000 raised towards team funds. And yet another rescue took place on the day of the auction. Auction shots here.
The second annual race in support of fundraising for the team was a great success - see here for race results and some interesting pics
The team responded to 8 incidents in a 7 day period starting and finishing with a broken ankle - photgraphs taken during the rescue are being provided shortly and will be linked here - see rescue narratives
Following a cheque presentation by Rotary of Whitehaven on 17th June , Richard Longman finally takes possession of the new Landrover on 20 June 2003. - see photos
Across in 25 minutes to support local charities - see photos
A great success for the County and Mountain Rescue - over 5,000 extra visitors to the county - see photos
On Saturday 28/7/01, Phil Lamport proposed to his fiancée Imogen on the summit of Great Gable (see below). We have recently received an email from Phil which said.....
"I'm not sure who from your Rescue
team was present on the above date, when I proposed to my Wife but, I just
thought that I would let you all know that we are Married, living in
Melbourne, and that we have had a Son
(Aston) who just turned One Year Old last week. We
think it is great that we are on your website & we have sent the link
to loads of people over the past 2 years. It was a fantastic setting for a
once-in-a-lifetime moment, we will remember it always.
All the best to all of your team,
Phil & Imogen Lamport."
All of us in the Wasdale Team would like to wish Aston a belated Happy Birthday. Perhaps he would like to become a supporter of the Team Phil. Now you can have a family memebrship!
The original entry was........
The first time in 30 years of ascending Gable that I see someone proposing. The couple below carried the ballons up from the bottom and, as we were wondering whether it was her birthday, he dropped to one knee and spoke those magic words - the answer was positive and a great round of applause went up from the 30 people sat in the sunshine on top of Great Gable. Ahhhhh.............
 |
They plan to get married next year in Australia. Is this the first time the summit cairn has been built up with ballons? |
- After last years massive success for team fundraising last year supported by the festival - it now continues across the county with £24,000 invested by the Rural Development Programme into MRT activities (£20,000 last year) - Wasdale MRT has received it's fair share with it's £2,500 support towards our fundraising activities last year, and now a further £2,800 for the forthcoming Easter fortnight - for details of events see here
Mickledore Stretcher Box gets a face-LIFT - 9th February 2003
- After years of service in the most inhospitable location the RAF at Boulmer come to the rescue - photos here
- This dangerous but very popular rake is now regarded by many as lethal following the rock fall reported 5th December (see below). The Wasdale Team Leader was on Border TV's Lookaround 30th December and various local papers and radio were reporting the dangerous state of the Rake. A cautious ascent / descent may minimise the danger but will not remove it - the rake is now on the move - dozens of large rock fragments and boulders have crashed down, coming to rest as far down as the memorial cross - see updated picture notes plus extra photos added 12/12/02 plus article from Whitehaven News added 1/1/03 plus most recent photos 5/1/03
- Stephen and Saffron's Walter's trainee Search Dog Rosie receives a national award for a lifesaving animal rescue. For details of the story and full size picture, click on the small picture.
- Message from Richard Longman, our Treasurer and
organiser of the day - "A big
thank you to everyone who helped on Saturday (and the dogs). We collected
£1371.72 in Whitehaven and £149.43 in Egremont. A grand total of:
£1521.15
well done and thank you!
- This dangerous but very popular rake is now regarded as lethal following another rock-fall. A cautious ascent /descent may minimise the danger but will not remove it - the rake is now on the move - at least a dozen rock fragments the size of your computer screen have crashed down, coming to rest as far down as the memorial cross - see updated picture notes plus extra photos added 12/12/02 plus article from Whitehaven News added 1/1/03
- The Party was a great success with over 100 people attending the RAF MRT lecture on the ascent of Everest 2001. for photos see here
- The Auction raised £10,000 for the team including £1,000 for the raffle. for photos see here
- The show, first since August 2000 due to F & M outbreak, was an ideal opportunity to promote mountain safety and the existence of the team as a community service to the area. Just under £200 raised towards the new vehicle.
For photos of the event see here
- Tracey Binks organised a full weekends activities as part of the Year of the Mountain. Nearly £500 was raised.
For photos of the event see here
- Paul Cook and Stephen Walter climb the Needle, recognised as the birthplace of the sport of rock climbing. Part of the Cumbrian Mountain Festival 2002 .
For photos of the climb see here
- the Tourism Minister, Dr. Kim Howells MP visits the Lake District in support of the Cumbrian Mountain Festival 2002 - Keswick MRT and Cockermouth MRT host the visit ....photos
- the RAF helicopter came across to help with the exercise - we arranged John Jones ,Seascale to take some team photos .....photographs
- the helicopter is in the lakes this weekend for familiarisation training with all the Lakes teams.
photographs of the Cockermouth / Wasdale session at West Cumberland Hospital helipad
- immediately following the opening at Rheged, Wasdale MRT opens up it's rescue headquarters.
further details and for photographs
- part of the United Nations International Year of Mountains. Massive Mountain Rescue contribution across the 13 teams in the Lake district.... for further details and for photographs
- an article on the team and what to do if you come across an accident on the hills.... see here
- Where do you go for snow in winter when you need to brush up on snow belays.... see photos here
- Wasdale Head Hotel - A great evenings entertainment and social following a day's grueling practice with the RAF Search and Rescue team, RAF Boulmer, North East of England. see photos here
- A Fell Race which was developed to suit all ages and levels of fitness was held 12/1/02 - Middle Fell Race + evening entertainment at the Screes Pub, Nether Wasdale . Event organised by Jenny Watson. Member of the team. Supported by Nick and Rachel Putnam, owners of the Screes pub.
£367 was raised towards the £30,000 vehicle appeal - see photos here
Pre race details see here
- The LDSAMRA teams finally received the green light of support for next years year of the mountain programme. Wasdale MRT will therefore now receive 50% funding towards the anticipated costs for the exhibitions scheduled for next year. The remainder will be found from other sources. See details ........here
- A fantastic day of support from the communities of Whitehaven, Egremont and surrounding areas. Early indications are that we will have raised at least £1,400 - we will firm up on the figure when our treasurer, Richard Longman finishes counting the pennies today. Photos of the day here
Actual sum collected was £1471
- Photos of the recent full day search practice click here
- A regular event on a wind swept summit in the Lakes - 2 minutes of silence then back down before it gets too cold
- Following a dramatic rescue of one of their employees on Scafell Pike in April 2000, the rescued walker raised nearly £700 through the Guardian (now Axa / Aegon UK) Insurance Sports and Social Club. See the incident details under callouts and also the true story. See below for the photographs taken when the cheque was presented to Deputy Team Leader, Mike Greene at the Gosforth base by Geoff Hayman and Peter Jones (Chairman of the Axa / Aegon UK Sports Club based at Lytham St. Annes).
The record of this incident can be viewed
by doubling clicking
here...No.17 - 10 April 2000
- For the first time in 20 years, a slight modification to the standard compass will allow walkers a much better chance of getting it right first time.
- The first time in 30 years of ascending Gable that I see someone proposing. The couple below carried the ballons up from the bottom and, as we were wondering whether it was her birthday, he dropped to one knee and spoke those magic words - the answer was positive and a great round of applause went up from the 30 people sat in the sunshine on top of Great Gable. Ahhhhh.............
|
They plan to get married next year in Australia. Is this the first time the summit cairn has been built up with ballons? |
- Useful tips for those who like the great outdoors and willing to experiment.
http://www.news~tips~to~make~life~easy
- Article written by the team's science officer following a training exercise in Mosedale on the flanks of Red Pike (Wasdale) on Sunday, December 10th 2000
http://www.news~stretcherlift~helium
- Article in the Yorkshire County Evening Press, Saturday, June 24th 2000
http://www. runner_saved_peaks_drama.htm
- Article in the Whitehaven News, 27th April 2000
http://www. rescue_team_in_three_callouts.htm
- Article in the Whitehaven News, 30th March 2000 - http://www.busy_time_for_rescue_team.htm
- Article on the Team's headquarters extensions - Dr. Jack Cunningham MP opens the refurbished base - http://www.cumbriapages.co.uk/A1e5t5.htm - published 18/04/98
Some of the Wasdale Team members after a full days practice on the Screes - the practice was filmed by the BBC2 team and shown on Focus up North, late 1999. The boat is a godsend when you need to either search the Screes path at night or indeed to recover a casualty from the far shore - the boat can get the advance group across the Wasdale Lake in just 45 seconds.......it beats walking any day.
The team were exercising on the Lake and the Screes again on Sunday 19th March when we were involved in a joint exercise with the RAF Leeming Mountain Rescue Team who are based at North Allerton, North Yorkshire. The days events went well and taxed both teams fully - if you want to read the exercise brief and see some of the pictures taken on the day
Leeming Exercise
- Sunday 19 Mar 2000
Bill Pattison (middle) receives
a framed painting of Napes Needle, Great Gable from fellow
team members after 20 years as Team Leader, and nearly 30
years in the team. The gift was presented to Bill by Dave
Fryer, Chairman at the annual post-christmas dinner . The
dinner was held at the Wasdale Head Inn on 21st January 2000.
Bill will remain actively involved in team affairs as the
newly elected President. Bill has handed over the leadership
to Julian Carradice (to the left), also a team member for over 20 years and
a Deputy Team Leader for the last 8 years.
