Storm Arwen made its presence felt this weekend as mountain rescue teams in Cumbria were called out 30 times in just 48 hours.
It started with a callout for a fractured lower limb on the summit of Great Gable on Friday afternoon.
Most of the rescues were weather-related supporting the police, fire and rescue and the ambulance crews as part of the major incident arrangements for Cumbria.
Also included in the total were a number of mountain-related injuries and searches for lost and missing walkers.
Richard Warren, chairman of the Lake District Search and Mountain Rescue Association, said: “This was extremely concerning due to the severe weather conditions with sub-zero temperatures and significant wind chill.”
The 30 rescues bring the total number of mountain rescue incidents so far for November to 71 compared to 2019 pre-COVID levels of 48 incidents.
The Beast from the East in February/March 2018 saw the teams undertaking similar rescues with over 40 deployments over a seven-day period. 2021 continues to be an extremely busy year for Cumbria’s 12 mountain rescue teams having to deal with 615 callouts.
