A woman is urging people to support the Lake District’s mountain rescue teams after she was rescued from a fell.
Eleanor White, 31, a keen walker and accountant from Lancaster, was out enjoying multiple fells near Keswick with her husband on bank holiday Monday when she fell and badly injured her ankle.
Unable to walk and facing a steep and rocky climb back down – Eleanor and her husband were left with no choice but to call for help.
She said: “We go walking every weekend and having to call for help is one of those things that I’ve always dreaded if I’m honest.
“It’s just one of those things I never thought would happen and this wasn’t a particularly big or strenuous walk for us.
“We were near Bleaberry Fell and we’d been to the top and were on our way down on a flatter grassy section back over to High Seat where we had just been previously.
“But there was this low flying plane and as it flew over I glanced at it for just a second and there must have been a loose rock or bit of ground or something beneath my foot and the next minute I was on the floor.”
Eleanor said she at first felt hesitant to call for help and tried to see if she could bear weight on her injury.
She said: “We had a bit of a five minute panic and I said to my husband no no I’ll be fine, I’m not ringing mountain rescue, I’m too embarrassed.
“I’ve never broken a bone before, but when I fell I heard a snap, luckily it’s turned out it wasn’t a broken bone, but it was a ligament tearing.
“I tried to walk on it and it just wasn’t working, it was really painful. We’d come up from Raven Crag and that path back down is quite a steep one and full of loose rocks, and I just thought to myself, I’m not going to make it back down there.
“So I had to send my husband off to ring mountain rescue.”
Eleanor said the mobile phone signal in the fells had been patchy for the pair during their walk, so her husband had to retrace their steps for 20 minutes in order to call for help.
But thanks to two groups of walkers – she didn’t have to wait alone.
She added: “There was two groups who stopped and waited with us, we were only waiting for around an hour, but it was really nice and kept the mood up.
“They were throwing layers, our blankets and coats on me and I’ve still got one of their hats. I tried to give it back, but he told me to keep it in the bottom of my bag and that one day I might come across someone who needs it.
“They were just so nice, I kept saying they could leave me if they wanted to, but they stayed with me and my husband until mountain rescue got there.”
While the pair were well prepared and carrying thermal blankets for an emergency – Eleanor said dealing with becoming cold on the fell while injured had proven an eye-opening experience for her.
She said: “I couldn’t believe how cold I got so quickly, at the time I was really warm and within a couple of minutes I was really shivering.
“I think it was a mix of a bit of shock and the cold wind, but I was absolutely freezing within a few minutes.
“Every time we go for a walk I pack us a thermal blanket each, and honestly I always feel so over prepared and dramatic putting it in when we’re doing a smaller walk.
“I actually ended up with both mine and my husbands blankets on me and I dread to think how bad it would have been on a colder day or if I hadn’t put those blankets in.
“We went for a walk in winter up Nethermost Pike and it was so cold my hair froze, and I was sat there thinking if it had happened on one of those days, it would have been unbearable.
“It has made me feel that even if you are on a smaller walk, it’s not dramatic to take things like a thermal blanket, because I really needed it that day.”
Keswick Mountain Rescue team responded to Eleanor’s call out at 10.58am and were able to provide her with pain relief for her then very swollen ankle and a splint before using a stretcher to carry her off the fell.
A total of 20 team members were involved with the rescue that lasted a total of four hours and 37 minutes.
Eleanor said: “They were amazing and so quick and it looked like the first two who arrived had run up the fell to me.
“They put a shelter over me to keep me out of the wind and they just sprung into action. I don’t even know what was going on then, but by the time I came out of that tent there was about 20 of them there.
“They then got me on a stretcher, wrapped me up because I was quite cold, and they got me back down.
“We say how amazing they are all the time, but actually seeing them in action is a different story. They were so kind and reassuring and they talked me through everything so I wasn’t panicking.
“They made jokes and talked among themselves the whole way down. I kept apologising to them, but they said no, it’s a nice day out for us, it’s fine.”
Eleanor’s rescuers also gave her a special heated vest on the way down to help warm her up, which the team told her cost £1,700 per vest.
She said: “I had all these blankets on me, but I was still quite cold, so they put this heated vest on me with all these buttons on the front.
“It was a lifesaver that day, without it I would have stayed cold the whole way down. But it just shows how expensive these things are and it’s entirely funded by our donations.”
Eleanor added that she also learnt a few things from her rescue that she felt were important for all walkers to be aware of.
She said: “You hear a lot of people say you can ring 999 without any service, I’m not sure if that’s true, but we couldn’t on that day, neither of us could.
“I don’t know what the solution is to that, but someone recommended a Garmin, which you can send an emergency signal from even if you’ve got nothing on your phone.
“The other thing was I have an Ordnance Survey locate app on my phone that gives you your coordinates without signal, but my husband doesn’t have it on his phone, and in the panic he’d gone off to call and they asked for coordinates and he wasn’t able to give them.
“Luckily we were close to the summit, so it was easy to explain where we were. I’ve made him download that app now, I think it’s handy for people to have.
“But if I’d been on my own, in a more remote area, I don’t know what I would have done. I would have had to hobble somewhere for signal or try my safety whistle.”
After her rescue, Eleanor decided to share her experience on social media, in the hopes of helping to boost donations for the team.
She said: “I was hesitant to put it online but the group I shared it in on Facebook has a fundraiser going for Keswick Mountain Rescue, and I thought well if it can drum up a few donations, then I’ll do it.
“I’ve had so many people message me since I put it on and you do worry people will slate you, but everyone has been so nice. I’ve also had a few people say it’s made them rethink what they pack when they’re going out into the fells.
“I’ve always thought we were well prepared, but it has made me think if I had been alone, what would I have done.
“It’s making sure you have a way of contacting someone, that someone knows where you’re going and that you’re packed for all eventualities, because it can happen to anyone.”
You can donate to the fundraiser here.
Want to learn more about staying safe in the fells? Read on here.
