THE Bank Holiday weekend saw an increase in mountain rescue callouts across Cumbria compared to other years.

On Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 August 2021, there were 13 callouts across the county. The August Bank Holiday weekends of 2020 and 2019 only had eight rescues each.

While there were less callouts in August of this year than the same month in 2020, the last week has seen 29 callouts across Cumbria.

Richard Warren, Chairman of the Lake District Search & Mountain Rescue Association, said: "That’s very busy.

"The first part of August was relatively quiet. We had lots of callouts but not as many as last year.

"But the last two weeks of August have been extremely busy."

The total number of callouts has increased to 386 this year, up from 306 in 2020.

There were twice as many callouts this July as there had been the previous year.

There have also been 14 deaths this year, when there had only been 11 at this point in 2020.

Mr Warren said: "Generally an awful lot of the callouts are due to people being unprepared.

"When the weather’s hot we have a lot of injuries - dislocated ankles, broken lower legs, things like that.

"When the sun comes out you get lots of people going up and a lot of people are inexperienced.

"They are not wearing the right footwear which protects your ankles, but they are also not familiar with what their capabilities are."

Mr Warren, who is also a member of the Wasdale Mountain Rescue team, was called out twice in Wasdale on Saturday.

He said: "Coming down the mountain I passed four or five people who were struggling to get down.

"They were exhausted. Sore knees, sore ankles, tired, you could see it in their faces that they wished that they had chosen a smaller mountain."

He encouraged future hikers to know their limits, stay in groups, wer proper footwear and carry power banks in case their phones run out of charge.

He added: "All mountain rescuers are unpaid volunteers."