Little Ward Law, Upper Coquetdale

Incident Type: Rescue

On Tuesday afternoon, ourselves and North of Tyne Mountain Rescue Team were called out by Northumbria Police to assist two walkers who had become lost in The Cheviots. The conditions for the walkers were challenging, the weather had been cold, misty, and windy for the best part of the day.

They had been walking the Windy Gyle section of the Border Ridge/Pennine Way when they became disoriented. Though we initially received a What3Words location, the description of where the walkers thought they were didn’t quite match up, giving us some uncertainty regarding its accuracy. After further communication with our duty controller and the successful use of the SARLOC location technology, a location near to Little Ward Law was confirmed. By this stage vehicles were ready to deploy and the teams were mobilised at shortly after 16.30hrs.

Our first team members arrived at the RVP near Rowhope by 17.10hrs. Soon after two hasty teams deployed along different routes towards Little Ward Law.

Thankfully, at around 18.00hrs, one of the hill parties successfully located the walkers aided by the use of our handheld thermal imaging units. After a quick assessment, some warming up, and food, they were safely brought down to the near 4×4 track. They were then transported to their vehicle, allowing them to return to their accommodation with an exciting story to tell!

The walkers did exactly the right thing in calling Northumbria Police who alerted Mountain Rescue.

The incident involved 19 Team members for 4 hours.