BGR Incident in Gategill?

[old un]

Poor sod , I hope he recovers ok and he's not as bad as he sounds. Never been down that route but know of its reputation.

[DaveSwift]

It's certainly a challenging descent and i can imagine a tumble having quite serious consequences, i wish the injured person a speedy recovery.

[tomphillips]

there is a safer and just as fast option a wee bit furher west - avoids the gullies and takes in more scree

[invisible]

Not sure what injuries he has suffered but apparently he is conscious and drinking coffee. His name is Mark Williams and may be known to some Ambleside runners. This was not a BGR attempt but a two day recce of the route. The runners are all from Springfield (Essex) and are all experienced and competent fell runners.

[gk4]

The accident actually happened right at the end of Gate Gill, probably no more than 200m from the gate off the fell. We knew that we had strayed into the gully from our intended path along the ridge, but it seemed as easy to keep going down rather than try to get back to the Hall's Ridge path; we could see where we were going and were through the worst part. Three of us were carrying gear, as we had planned to do the round over a couple of days, camping out half way round. Mark was only running leg 1, never having been to Great Calva before, and fell right at the end of the valley, just before he would have left us to run back to Keswick. None of us saw what actually happened, but we understand, indirectly, that he is sitting up and drinking tea (thankfully a lot better than we had been led to expect). Needless to say the recue people really performed well; many thanks to them.

[that_fjell_guy]

Here's hoping for a speedy recovery!! Tea definately helps i find!!

[Nee Bother]

Speedy recovery Mark.
This is a timely reminder to all others to be aware and be careful out there.
Ken

[Martyn P]

If he is sitting up that suggests limited damage to his back, excellent news! I must admit, I read this and had a cold chill run over me .... I came down the Parachute in very wet and slippy conditions on Friday night (on my abortive BG attempt) following the route that Tom Phillips mentions and was pretty mortified when I read this, particularly as one of my support runners hadn't done it before.

Still, it does sound like it was one of those accidents that could have happened to anyone, particularly so far down where the incline is much less steep. Hope Mark continues to improve.

The accident actually happened right at the end of Gate Gill, probably no more than 200m from the gate off the fell. We knew that we had strayed into the gully from our intended path along the ridge, but it seemed as easy to keep going down rather than try to get back to the Hall's Ridge path; we could see where we were going and were through the worst part. Three of us were carrying gear, as we had planned to do the round over a couple of days, camping out half way round. Mark was only running leg 1, never having been to Great Calva before, and fell right at the end of the valley, just before he would have left us to run back to Keswick. None of us saw what actually happened, but we understand, indirectly, that he is sitting up and drinking tea (thankfully a lot better than we had been led to expect). Needless to say the recue people really performed well; many thanks to them.

[lantern rouge]

Sounds promising... fingers crossed.

See you Friday Ken.

[stevers]

Incident on Gategill - ie Parachute descent.
I could only assume that it would be BGR related ?

A correct assumption in this instance but there are plenty of us who frequent the Northern Fells and even Gategill without it always being BGR related...