Two hikers have tragically fallen to their deaths from popular British hiking spots.
On Saturday, a male walker fell from the notorious Sharp Edge, a razor-sharp rocky ridge on Blencathra in the Lake District National Park. Despite efforts from the Keswick Mountain Rescue Team, they discovered that he had not survived the fall and the team escorted the other three members of his group safely off the ridge.
The team posted the tragic news on Instagram:
Sharp Edge, Lake District
Sharp Edge is a crest of narrow rock that arcs up from the shore of Scales Tarn towards Atkinson Pike, a subsidiary summit of Blencathra. Blencathra is one of the Lake District's most popular mountains, with a variety of interesting routes to the summit.
Like Striding Edge on nearby Helvellyn, Sharp Edge is a grade one scramble that balances achievability with airy thrills, making it a very sought-after ridge walk. In dry, calm conditions, it shouldn't pose too many problems to confident hikers.
However, the crest is extremely narrow in places and the rock has been polished by the passage of countless hiking boots. Fatalities sadly occur every now and again, which has led to it being considered among the most dangerous hiking routes in the UK, though this has more to do with the sheer numbers taking on the challenge than its objective difficulties.
Some sections are particularly hazardous when wet, particularly The Bad Step, a sloped slab perched above a potentially deadly drop that forms the crux of the route. The gully beneath this feature is known to mountain rescue as The Usual Gully as this is where casualties often end up. Attempting Sharp Edge in wet conditions is dangerous.
In full winter conditions, it becomes a mountaineering objective, requiring experience and the use of an ice axe and crampons.
Peak District incident
Five days earlier, on June 30, a male hiker died after a fall from Kinder Downfall, the Peak District National Park's highest waterfall. The Kinder Mountain Rescue Team attended the scene but found that he had not survived. After a 10-hour effort involving the coastguard helicopter and the Buxton and Glossop Mountain Rescue Teams, the man's body was recovered from the site.
The Kinder Mountain Rescue Team posted on social media saying: "We would like to thank the group of walkers who called in the incident for their assistance. The team would like to pass on our sincere condolences to the walker's family."
Posted by KinderMountainRescueTeam on
Kinder Downfall
Kinder Downfall is located on the western edge of the sprawling Kinder Scout plateau, a huge moorland upland that's the highest ground in the Peak District National Park at 2,087ft (636m). The Downfall is where the River Kinder plunges 98ft (30m) from the plateau into a wide, rocky ravine.
The waterfall provides good ice climbing when frozen, making it a popular objective for England's climbers and mountaineers. In strong westerly winds, the waterfall is also renowned for the way it blows back on itself, as gusts are funnelled up through the chasm.
The scrambling routes on Kinder Downfall are generally much more difficult than Sharp Edge. While only short, the primary routes are given either a grade 3 scrambling or a Mod trad climbing grade – equivalent to around a Class 4 route on the Yosemite Decimal System. It's exactly the sort of ground where scrambling becomes climbing and is quite a risky undertaking without a rope.
