Incident report

On Tuesday, two mature gentlemen from St Helens set off for a day’s walk on Kinder Scout from a car park near Hayfield.   A promising day soon deteriorated with heavy rain setting in from noon onwards.  The wet conditions with low cloud cover on the summits made for difficult navigation and slow progress.  When darkness fell early the gentlmen became dissorientated and lost.

The men decided to use their experience and stay put on the moor. They spent a very uncomfortable night sharing a plastic emergency shelter bag.  The rain continued for most of the night swelling the rivers and streams.  When daylight came in the morning the two attempted to walk off, but both were tired, and one was starting to suffer from a stiff ankle.  It was then that they thought continuing was foolhardy and called for assistance.

Not sure of their exact position, Kinder and Glossop teams were called out immediately, with Buxton team on stand-by.   Several Buxton members went to the team base to make ready for the call and later took the team vehicles over to Kinder’s base at Hayfield.

Rangers and wardens working on Kinder as part of the Moorlands Project were alerted to the incident.  A small helicopter from Pennine Helicopters was working with the rangers lifting materials onto the moor.  The pilot was asked to do an aerial sweep of the area and soon located the missing men to the west of the plateau. 

The men were picked off the moor and flown to Chunnel where a Buxton team vehicle was waiting to transfer them back to Kinder base.  Both men were tired and soaking wet from their night on the moor, however both were fit enough to leave without hospital treatment.