Work to help walkers avoid a danger path at the Lake District’s highest mountain will be carried out after several people had to be rescued from a ravine.
Piers Gill, on Scafell Pike, has been the scene of numerous serious rescues by Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team and other Lake District teams – the terrain means evacuating casualties is tricky for the volunteers.
Wasdale team members met with the National Trust and Fix the Fells representatives to discuss what interventions could be put in place to help people out in the Lake District.
Signs will also be installed lower down the fell to help lower the risk of visitors mistakenly taking a wrong turn into the dangerous ravine.
The National Trust said: “Considerations were made with regards to the prior report made by the Visitor Safety Group in 2019 and it was accepted that overt signs on the fell might set a concerning precedent and more discrete signs could easily be missed in adverse weather conditions.
“The decision was made to build a memorable cairn on the left side of the junction on the way down from the summit, opposite Lingmell Col at the point where it meets the path towards the Corridor Route to help with wayfinding where a choice has to be made between descending left to Wasdale or right to Borrowdale.
“In case anyone was to still take the wrong turn into Piers Gill, a sign will be placed at the point of no return advising to turn back.
“So as not to encourage people to go down towards it, this sign will be out of sight from the Corridor Route.
“Large stones will also be placed where the route crosses the head of the gill to ensure that the safe Corridor Route path across the head of the gill is clear, even in low visibility conditions.
“Lower in the valley, more information relating to safety on the fells and signs with OS mapping will be placed at the exit points of the major car parks and areas from
which visitors tend to begin their ascent including Lake Head, Wasdale Green and Seathwaite in the Borrowdale Valley.
“Information, leaflets, compasses and maps will continue to be available from the welcome team at Lake Head car park.”
Neil Thirkell, lead ranger for the National Trust said: “We had a very positive and constructive site meeting looking at issues around safety on the route down Scafell
Pike and around Piers Gill.
“We also learned more on the effort and emotion that goes into some of the rescues to this particular site.
“We came away having agreed on a few measures to help visitors have a safe day in the fells – and hopefully fewer callouts for the rescue team.”
John Bamforth, chairman of Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team, said: “The site visit was extremely helpful demonstrating strong inter agency co-operation in showing
the issues that are continuing to cause confusion to the visitors in the vicinity of Lingmell Col and Piers Gill.
“More worryingly is the increasing numbers of rescues our volunteer team members are having to respond to in an extremely dangerous location and for some of our visitors, tragic outcomes from simple navigation errors.”
