North Yorkshire Police received a call from a walker who, while walking on Whernside, had texted a family group who she knew were also on the hill, asking whether all was well. This was because a member of the family was known to have knee problems. The reporting person’s text was sent at 13.03, but because one or both of the phones was out of signal, she did not see the reply until 16.46. This said that the family was ‘stuck at the top’ and asked her to send help. Because of the phone problems, it was not known at what time the request had been made.
On receiving the alert from NYP, the CRO duty controller spoke to the reporting person and put team members on stand-by. Further investigation showed that the group had been seen descending towards Bruntscar. The duty controller drove along Philpin Lane, asking people whether they had seen anyone struggling. In this way, he met the car which had collected members of the family and was returning them to Ribblehead. Team members were stood down.
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