A man who was saved after an avalanche in the Lake District has reunited with three of his rescuers 40 years later.
Simon Ellis was rescued by Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team in 1984.
He was one of six Venture Scouts involved in the avalanche on Nethermost Pike on January 14 1984, when he was just 17.
He has lived in Colorado Springs in the USA since the 1990s and the surprise reunion was organised by his wife, Tracy, who had liaised with the team to make it happen during a family holiday in the Lakes.
Tracy said: “We were staying in Ambleside and Simon knew we were taking our children and his father, Neville, over to Patterdale for the evening but neither of them knew that I’d been in touch to organise a meet-up.
“Both Simon and Neville found it very emotional and it was great to be able to talk about the incident and for our children to see the rescue centre and find out more about Mountain Rescue too.”
It was an emotional evening for four rescuers too. Dave Freeborn, still a member of Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team as well as being the team’s president, was one of those involved back in 1984, as was former team member, Syd Burns and former team chairman, John Williams.
Another current team member, Mark Tomlinson, was rescued from Nethermost Pike just 10 years after Simon’s rescue so he joined the reunion too.
Dave said: “We were able to dig out the logbook from 1984 and familiarise ourselves with the details, although a rescue like that, with three fatalities and three seriously injured young people, sticks in your mind.”
“Several teams were involved, not only Patterdale, as we also asked for support from Langdale/Ambleside, Penrith, Kirkby Stephen and Kendal teams as well as RAF Linton who were in the area.
“There was a huge amount of snow on the fells at that time and the rescue itself took over eight hours.
“I also remember it took us a few days to retrieve our team Land Rover from the snow drifts after the rescue too!”
The evening ended with tea and cake, provided by Mark’s wife, Kate and a lot of conversation and shared memories.
