Mountain hike to mountain rescue
Updated on 26 October 2008
Thousands of endurance athletes make it to safety after a dangerous and dramatic night of treacherous weather.
Police had warned the organisers about the weather and were disappointed by the decision to go ahead with an endurance race in the Lake District.
An immense and expensive rescue operation has ended after hundreds spent a grim and dangerous night on the mountains, and several people were treated in hospital for injuries and hypothermia.
Police, mountain rescue teams and the RAF were all drafted in to help, with organisers of the Original Mountain Marathon claiming the risk had been sensationalised.
But one rescuer, who lives locally and was first on the scene, said the area's mountains could easily have turned into a "morgue."
Event organisers in Cumbria, just south of Keswick in the Lake District, managed to account for all competitors by mid-afternoon.
Two and a half thousand people set off from Seathwaite to Gatesgarth yesterday, but were quickly called off.
Hundreds of them sheltered last night in buildings around Borrowdale, and an unknown number were camping in treacherous conditions around the Honister Pass.
