A man died after a roughly 180-metre fall in the Lake District.
He was reported missing by his wife who was at home on December 29, tracking his progress, later noticing that his position hadn’t moved for a few hours.
He was staying at a holiday home in Grasmere and had gone out to Helvellyn on his bicycle with his black Labrador.
Subscribe to the News & Star today and get the latest news, sports, and entertainment delivered straight to your device.
At 8.54pm that day, police contacted Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team with a report that he was ‘possibly in trouble on Helvellyn’, the team said.
Patterdale MRT, along with the respective Keswick and Langdale Ambleside teams, were called out to search the various routes up to the location being communicated by the man’s phone near the summit of Helvellyn.
Three search dogs and their handlers also joined the search.
A coastguard search and rescue helicopter travelled down from Prestwick and made numerous attempts to get into the area but due to low cloud and high winds they were unsuccessful.
At about 1am the next day (December 30), battling atrocious weather conditions, the Patterdale and Keswick team members managed to reach the location identified and found the man’s bike and phone, close to the edge of the summit plateau but there was no sign of him or the dog.
At around 1.30am, with weather getting worse, the search was called off until the first light of that day.
The last party cleared the fell at about 3.30am.
At 8am, mountain rescuers from the respective Cockermouth, Penrith, Kirkby Stephen and Patterdale Rescue Teams were briefed on the incident and made their way up to the Helvellyn summit plateau again.
A rope system was set up to enable them to descend the headwall down towards Red Tarn and search the area where the man was suspected to be.
A coastguard helicopter was again used in an attempt to access the area to assist with the search but due to conditions was still unable to help and landed at Patterdale.
In the late morning, it was confirmed that the dog had been found alive and well on a ledge on the headwall and shortly afterwards rescuers who were lowered down to the area found the man and confirmed that he had died as a result of the injuries sustained in his fall of around 180 metres.
The man’s body was lowered by stretcher to the back of Red Tarn, then carried down to Greenside and transported back to Patterdale Base where it was handed over to Cumbria Police.
READ NEXT: Mountain rescuers called to help paramedics treat hard-to-reach casualty
The whole incident took 20 hours to complete over two days and involved mountain rescuers from the respective Patterdale, Keswick, Langdale Ambleside, Cockermouth, Penrith and Kirkby Stephen units, three dogs from Lake District Search And Rescue and two coastguard helicopters.
In total, 68 MRT rescue personnel were involved over the two days.
A spokesperson from the Patterdale team: “We would like to send our condolences to the man’s family and friends and our thanks to the various teams and helicopter crews who assisted with the search and subsequent recovery.”