Sunday 12th October, A day of two half's

Today Myra and I headed off to Grasmere for a walk up to Codale Tarn. Our route followed the path beside the beck up to Sour Milk Ghyll and then Easdale Tarn. The cloud base was very low and only just above the Tarn. We followed the path round the tarn before starting the ascent up to Codale in poor visibility.

After a lunch stop at Codale Tarn we headed to the summit of Tarn Crags before descending back down to Easdale Tarn. By now the cloud had lifted and we were enjoying a tea-break by the Tarn when the Mountain Rescue pager went off. Our easy walk was now over and the second half of the day began.

We quickly descended back into Grasmere and drove round to the Langdale Valley where I was dropped off by Myra. The incident turned out to be on Jack’s Rake, a well known scramble on Pavey Ark, and involved a man who had fallen and sustained some nasty head injuries. The casualty was brought to the top of the route on a rope before being taken down on our stretcher to Stickle Tarn. Fortunately the big yellow budgie from RAF Valley arrived just as it was getting dark and airlifted the casualty to Barrow.

We then enjoyed a nice moonlight walk back down to the valley and the New Dungeon Ghyll where we had left the vehicles.