The Mountain Rescue
This is what actually happened. Mark and I were intending to do a ridge walk from the top right bit of Red Pike along to the left for a few miles. This tarn is about 1200 ft up and we stopped for a breather. You can see the path we eventually climbed up to the right of the picture.
As we climbed up through the snowline we started to think about turning back - especially if it got too icy. We then heard a whistle and someone shouting for help. As we got closer, I realised that to get to where he was I'd have to climb up an icy gully. I reached an outcrop of rock and looked across to find a lad (Richard) had slipped down the other side of the outcrop and got stuck. I couldn't get down to him so called mountain rescue. Then I found myself in the situation below.
Stuck basically. I was lying on snow and cold. Small rocks kept landing on me as the sun went in and out and after a while I started worrying that there could be more of them so I wanted to get away from there. Above me looked like this
So I climbed up and got one foot on that triangular bit of rock at the top of the picture. Not a great move as I was now exposed to the wind, but it was at least a bit more steady. In my bag I had food, a flask of tea and more waterproofs. However, by this time I was dangerously cold and thought if I took my bag off I might drop it and the bag was keeping the wind off my back.
About two and a half hours since we heard the whistle, the mountain rescue team got to us. It took me an hour and a half to get to where I was - the rescue team took just over half an hour to do the same distance. They got Richard up by rope and cleared a bit of ground of ice for me to sit on. My arms were all over the place by then - shaking uncontrollably. They called an RAF helicopter that was in the area who winched us both on board and flew us to Cumberland Infirmary.
If anyone would like to make a donation to the people who saved my life the link is below. I found out later that the mountain rescue teams receive no funding at all other than charitable donations.