A hiker has plunged 230ft to his death in a horror fall from a popular Lake District mountain ridge after snow hit and rescuers say that this section is “notoriously slippy”
A hiker has died after slipping off a “notoriously slippy” mountain ridge in the Lake District during snowy conditions on Thursday afternoon.
The man, who has not been named, fell 230ft from Sharp Edge on Blencathra in the Lake District.
Keswick Mountain Rescue confirmed volunteers were called out at 12.25pm and the hikerss body was retrieved and transported via air ambulance to the rescue team’s base.
In a social media post, the rescue team said: “Our first call-out of the year had a tragic ending after a man died in a 70m fall from Sharp Edge.
“A Keswick team member already on Blencathra made his way to the scene above Scales Tarn, along with the crew of Helimed 58, who landed nearby.
“Keswick team recovered the body to H58 who then airlifted the man to Keswick MR Base.”
The team said on their post that there has been a flurry of call outs at the tail end of 2024.
They added: “2024 has been a record year for Keswick with 146 callouts and 34 alerts (incidents that were managed without a team deployment). This can only have been done with the support of the general public and your kind donations which are greatly appreciated.”
The rescue team said every year people get into trouble on the ridge as it can become “notoriously slippy” when wet and should be avoided unless experienced or well prepared.
Between 1949 and 2018 there were 11 fatalities, and in October 2021 Paul Brand tragically died traversing the mountain as part of his preparations to scale Mount Kilimanjaro.
Blencathra is a particularly popular spot in the Lakes and was dubbed “the people’s mountain” in Terry Abraham’s 2016 documentary. Renowned writer Alfred Wainwright described Sharp Edge, where the hiker fell this week, as a “rising crest of naked rock of sensational and spectacular appearance”.
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