A man has died after falling 70 metres from a mountain ridge in the Lake District.
Keswick Mountain Rescue said its first callout of the year ended in tragedy after the man fell from Sharp Edge on Blencathra on Thursday.
The volunteers were called out at 12.25pm. A Keswick team member already on Blencathra made his way to the scene above Scales Tarn, along with a helicopter crew.
“Keswick team recovered the body to H58 who then airlifted the man to Keswick MR Base,” the team said.
“Many thanks to [helicopter] H58, the coastguard, and to the hillgoers who went to assist. Our thoughts and condolences go to the man’s family and friends.”
The man has not been named.
The team said on its Facebook page there had been a “flurry of callouts” in the last few days of 2024.
It 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.”
Sharp Edge is a ridge leading to the top of the 868-metre-high Blencathra mountain and one of the most popular Lake District areas.
Between 1949 and 2018 there were 100 incidents with 11 fatalities on the ridge, according to Keswick Mountain Rescue.
In 2021, Paul Band died while traversing Sharp Edge. The 47-year-old, from Stoke, slipped and fell 50 metres down the steep gully on the north side.
Band had been training for a planned climb of Kilimanjaro.
Blencathra was dubbed “the people’s mountain” in a 2016 documentary by Terry Abraham and is renowned for its tiger claw of ridges towering over the valley.
The route is described as “strenuous” on the Cumbria tourism website, which states: “Its lofty position and fine sculpted crest have the capacity to excite even the most jaded scrambler. But it also has the capacity to scare some people.”
Source: theguardian.com
