General~news

There has been a flood of comments on the UK climbing forum (202 responses and over 7,000 views) regarding some bolts that have appeared on Broad Stand. There have been comments that they may have been placed by WMRT. Any enquiries have been directed to Julian Carradice, WMRT Team Leader who makes the following statement.

"Members of Wasdale MRT are first and foremost mountaineers. We have a keen interest in and take pride in the history and ethics of British
mountaineering and are absolutely appalled by the placement of bolts on Broad Stand. We see the placing of them as irresponsible and completely
pointless. They have nothing to do with rescue and wouldn't be required in any rescue type operation on there. I probably use Broad Stand more than anyone else and it was me who removed no less than three fixed ropes recently. I didn't have a spanner or tools to remove the bolts with me but I do intend to go back with the necessary kit very soon."

Julian will be removing the bolts as a local mountaineer and not as a representative of WMRT.

Postscript - the bolts have now been removed (5 June 09) and there will be an article on it in Trail magazine

The team has received a 10,000 Won Korean bank note from someone called Fraser. No address, just a scribbled note "Please add this money to your mountain rescue funds. Many Thanks, Fraser." Our treasurer has received the same from him before but no contact details. We would like to be able to thank the person but do not know his address - we neither know if it is for Wasdale or to the Lake District region. It has gone into the Wasdale account and we would like to thank Frazer on the website [ exchange rate is ~2,000 Won =£1 for those who are curious]

The team celebrated its 40th birthday at the Wasdale Head Inn on 9th January. Over 50 team members and partners attended along with founder members of the team. The opportunity was taken to present long service awards to team members including two 40 year awards. David Allan, Chairman Mountain Rescue (England & Wales) who attended the dinner, presented the awards - see attached photos - write up to follow

Ian Royston, from near Egremont, is 44 years old and runs for Blengdale Runners based at Gosforth. Ian ran the Great North Run on 5th October 2008 and the Beijing Marathon on 19th October 2008 raising similar amounts of sponsor money for CAFOD [Catholic Agency for Overseas Development] and WMRT (£1000 in total). Hi time for the Marathon was 3hr 19 mins on a hot, sunny day. Having run the Athens Marathon shortly after the Olympics in 2004 he hopes to keep the series going by running the London Marathon in 2012. A big thank you to Ian from the team. Ian handed over a cheque for £450 to Team Leader, Julian Carradice see photo at the Wasdale Rescue HQ in Gosforth

A big thank you from the Wasdale Team to our local community - Our annual fund raising collection day in Whitehaven, Cleator Moor and Egremont has raised a total of £1,589 compared to £1,397 last year (Whitehaven £1240, Egremont £217 and Cleator Moor £132 ). A fantastic sum considering we are in the depths of an economic downturn where every penny counts so the donations are very gratefully received. Also the weather was not the kindest but the support was generous, supportive and very friendly.

Local bands including Skunk, Mingo’s Locker, South Quay, Kitchie Wud plus others, hosted a charity acoustic music event at The Vagabond in Whitehaven last Sunday afternoon. The event was a success and managed to raise £297.53 for Wasdale Mountain Rescue. A warm atmosphere and packed audience made for a rather special afternoon of acoustic music. The organizers hope to turn this into an annual fundraising event to the benefit of various local charities.

The Wasdale team was called to the rescue of a female competitor in the OMM. She was swept down Spouthead Gill but somehow managed to survive the raging beck. Little was known at that time about the press furor that was about to unfold with "thousands of walkers unaccounted for...." the publicity that followed was good for MR in general and raised quite a bit of money - see attached links

The Wasdale team is now dealing with Three Peak Challenge event rescues on a 1 in 5 frequency - what can be done to halt this trend? See article by the Team leader Julian Carradice - can the LDNPA and National Trust help to get the problem resolved? Article here

Wasdale has been voted Britain's favourite view and contains many hidden gems one of which is the 4.5 mile long and 2500 feet of accent 'Lingmell Dash' fell race which is now in it's sixth year of raising funds for the Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team. Race results are here. Photograph here

The mark the anniversary, the 12 Lake District mountain rescue teams got together for a fun day out at the Ambleside Rugby club - member of the public were encouraged to attend the day's activities which was followed by a private social event for team members and their guests - see here for details plus see photographs and videos of the day here

Following the increase in callouts across the Lake District (425 in 2007 cf 395 in 2006) - Cumbria Tourism has sponsored a safety and public awareness campaign including a video - this campaign has the support of a family we rescued in March who wrote a letter to the team which reflected the problems that mountain rescue is experiencing

Following the latest fatality on Broad Stand (see incident 2008:15) there have been a number of articles in the media - this one by Grough Website gives a good report on the problems and links to the 2008 campaign to improve understanding about the inherent dangers of the mountains and need for greater knowledge and experience see their article here

Following the tragic death of Ronnie Ritson on Kirk Fell nearly a year ago, the family and friends have raised nearly £5,000 for the team to spend on improved radio communication. They met with the team by the Wastwater for a photograph to help promote the activities of our team. Photographs and more details here.

Teams in the Lake District are investigating ways of tackling the education of walkers in the art of navigation. This might help reduce the number of requests teams like WMRT are getting to act as a guiding service. One company, Where- Wolf.com is willing to partner with Mountain Rescue (England &Wales) to help in this task. Visit their site and view their grid reference finder.

It is a serious problem though which has to be tackled on a national scale before we might see an improvement. Watch this space!

If you have a view on whether this idea will help educate the occasional walker or be good for scouts and other youth groups drop me an email at and please add a copy to enquiries@where-wolf.com so they can also assess interest

The team were asked to be part of the launch of the new beer, brewed at the Wasdale Head Inn with 50 pence from every pint going to mountain rescue photos here

The team have been notified of a recent rock fall and very close shave - walkers need to take care when ascending or descending - read the story and view the photos

The White Mare Hotel in Beckermet is hosting a fun day and music festival to support the team. We are fundraising for a replacement advance Landrover as the other is now getting a bit too old see details here

The Kerry mountain rescue team has erected signs at the bottom of their mountains to increase safety awareness and reduce accidents - if you think this would be a good idea for Wasdale then drop me an email

The Keswick MRT had its 60th Anniversary and invited Lake District teams to come along and join in a great family day out - Wasdale MRT entered with their team 'Scafell Massif' - we didn't win the competition but had a great time - however we were out on the Scafell Massif later that day to search for lost walkers - see the festivities here

The Bower House held their annual music festival on 4th and 5th August. The profits are going to be split between First Responders and WMRT. Last year the First Responders received somewhere in the region of £2000 and this year the festival was bigger with more advance tickets sold.

The Cumbria Police have introduced a text messaging service for the Deaf and Speech Impaired. This service covers Police (Mountain Rescue), Ambulance, Fire & Rescue and allows details to passed on if the normal '999' voice system is inappropriate [could also be used in emergencies on the hill if there is too weak a signal for speech but sufficient for text messaging (however it is primarily a new service for the deaf) - see leaflet here

23 Runners with a new course record of 45 min 36 secs - photograph and results printed here

Thank you to the following sponsors of the event who provided prizes - Howard Christie (Wasdale Head Hotel), Tim Brookes (Lingmel House), Jonathon Stanley (Lakeland Habit), Andrew & Gillian Race (Burnthwaite Farm), Guy Newbold (WasdaleWeb) - the event raised around £100 towards team funds

The Bower House are holding their annual music festival on 4th and 5th August. The profits are going to be split between First Responders and WMRT. Last year the First Responders recieved somewhere in the region of £2000 and this year the festival is bigger with more advance tickets sold.

One of the team's supporters has developed a new site which identifies all our rescues - it is still being worked on but certainly worth a look. When on the site, if you move across to the right hand side of the map you can filter out incidents by month or year see the map here

Target Zero is a performance based safety initiative developed to actively involve contractors workforce on their projects at Sellafield in behavioural based accident prevention. The scheme promotes worker involvement in day to day safety issues along with active participation in their "Don't Walk By" programme. The aim of "Target Zero" is for the workforce to achieve 28 consecutive working days without a lost workday accident (OSHA Days Away Case).

Initially the workforce nominate their own individual worthy causes such as WMRT, who then receive the award following the successful accident-free period.

Funding for the awards is supplied by BNG, Carillion, Edmund Nuttall Ltd, Hertel, Balfour Kilpatrick, William Hare Ltd and K F Kelly.

Cheque being presented to the team see photograph here - this is in memory of Ronald Ritson who was tragically killed on Kirk Fell in December 2006. The money will be spent on an improved radio communication system using GPS microphones.

"Pack a bag day" & raffle raised £1089.81, this took us all by surprise but shows the generosity of Cleator Moor shoppers & all other contributors. A big pat on the back for Brenda & her daughter Andrea who's idea it was to raise funds this way , not forgetting the kindness of Cleator Moor Coop who gave them permission to hold the fund raising event in their store. photos

After a long period of discussion between the MR EW Chairman and Clarence House, the Prince has agreed to become Royal Patron of Mountain Rescue in England and Wales. This is very good news for us in the Lakes and very good news for the people we rescue - this will significantly improve the profile of Mountain Rescue. see our press release here see Clarence House press release

The pillar at the top of Lords Rake collapsed in 2003 and although it looks quite scary, it seems it want to hang in there - there is even moss starting to grow on it and you know what they sat about a rolling stone....

A local engineering group Alstec decided to include a tour of the base as part of a farewell evening. Greg's 12 colleagues arranged the event which was a surprise to Greg until he came through the door at the Mill Forge Base. The twist in the story is that Greg used to be in the team before it was the WMRT. We managed to get Greg into the vacuum mattress before they left the rescue base for a local pub meal. The photos are a little hazy due to condensation on the lens.

Photo 1 and photo 2 - Many thanks to Greg, Paul and friends for their kind donation to the team.

Last years organised training was cancelled due to bad weather. The rescheduled weekend was slightly better with rough seas on the Saturday and gale force winds and rain on the Sunday - photos and video footage here

Part of the 'Swim the Lake' fundraising effort, the local Round Table raised £300 which was increased to £500 due the branch deciding to close down and clear its account. The attached photograph shows the two round tablers handing over the cheque to Julian Carradice, Team Leader at the rescue base.

Following the tragic accident of a local walker just after christmas, his three nieces and grandson who are all from the local primary school, organised a 'uniform free day' for the school and raised £224 for the Wasdale and Cockermouth rescue teams involved in the rescue. Wasdale MRTs share will be used to purchase a GPS microphone, one of 12 being purchased to assist in search co-ordination and rescuer safety. Refer to rescue here 27/1/07

One of the Major TV Broadcasting Companies is filming a new series about the Mountains - Wasdale MRT were involved on Broad Stand, Accident Black Spot - see photos of the preparation and post filming photos

The Lake District Search and Mountain Rescue Association (LDSAMRA) launches a massive public awareness campaign today with interviews on radio and television. More details to follow this afternoon when I get back from the studios. I will include possible photos of the media interviewing teams and links to other relevant sites. Should be in place by this evening - Radio Cumbria has already done a brilliant job for us - Thank you to Martin Lewes of Radio Cumbria and to Sue Holden, one of Keswick MRT casualties for their powerful reports.

One of the Major TV Broadcasting Companies is filming a new series about the Mountains - Wasdale MRT will be involved - see photos of the preparation and post filming photos (will be added after the 4th Sept)

A big apology to the Seascale Stompers who were the first group to raise money towards the teams replacement medical kit. I would have liked to have added a photograph of the line dancers in action and particularly one of the team members who attended the hat judging competition back in April. If you have a photo then please send it to me at rawarren@freenetname.co.uk

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

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 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.

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

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

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

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 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.............

- 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

- 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.

- Tracey Binks organised a full weekends activities as part of the Year of the Mountain. Nearly £500 was raised.

- 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 .

- 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.

- 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.

- 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

- 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).

- 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.............

- Useful tips for those who like the great outdoors and willing to experiment.

- 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

- 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

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.