A RESCUE team was in for a double surprise on Christmas Eve after getting to successive calls to help stricken walkers.

Just before 3pm Keswick Mountain Rescue Team was called to Surprise View above Ashness Bridge after three generations of the same family had become stuck.

The family – a 60-year-old woman and her 27-year-old daughter – were helped down by the team after the youngest member of the group was rescued.

A spokesman for KMRT said: “They attempted to climb up direct but found the ground increasingly steep and impossible to continue. The descent was now an unattractive proposition so they called 999 and asked for Mountain Rescue help.

“Team members went straight out and climbed up from near to Lodore Falls to locate the family under the crags below Surprise View. One team member took the young lad straight down while the rest of the team helped the two ladies, securing them on a short rope on the steep, bouldery, slippery ground.”

While team members were heading back to base they were called into action again as a family with two children found themselves lost. The call came just after 3pm and the family was stuck on steep ground near to Kings How on Grange Fell in Borrowdale

KMRT added: “Using ‘Phone Find’, the precise location of the family was pinpointed and had already very wisely stated that they would not move from that location to make finding them easier.”