The Lake District’s fell top assessors are celebrating 35 years of helping keeping walkers safe over winter.
The Weatherline service sees an assessor climb Helvellyn every day between December 1 and Easter – including Christmas Day – to provide a detailed report of the conditions.
Their Twitter account is followed by more than 23,500 people and is essential reading for anyone planning a trip on the fells.
The Weatherline Service, run by the Lake District National Park, started 35 years ago when assessors made the daily trip to the top of Helvellyn and had to phone in their report from a phone box when they got back down.
The longest serving assessor, Jon Bennett, said: “This is now my 15th season as a Lake District National Park Authority Fell Top Assessor and I’m as excited now as I was on my very first day.
“I know what a real difference we make to keeping people safe on the fells during the winter and we do our best to offer important safety messages and inspirational images throughout the season. There’s already been some snow on the tops and the temperatures have started to fall so it’s all systems go for winter conditions.”
Jon joins Zac Poulton and Wes Hunter to make up the team who will climb the 950m to the summit of Helvellyn to provide a detailed condition report.
The Lake District’s mountain rescue teams have attended 600 rescues this year so far and of these 30 per cent of them were preventable.
John Chapman, LDSAMRA operations lead, and Kirkby Stephen Mountain Rescue Team member, joined the assessors for the season launch.
He said: “It has been one of the busiest years on record for our rescue teams and we know that the winter brings with it new challenges. We would urge anyone who intends to venture out on the fells to make sure they are Adventure Smart and have the right skills and equipment, and to read the fell top assessors report so they know what the ground conditions are likely to be.”
