At half-past midnight on February 6, in a winter that has been colder and snowier than any in the last decade, Patterdale Mountain Rescue team received a call. Two people were wild camping on Red Screes in the Lake District, north-east of Ambleside, and one, suffering chest pains, feared a heart attack.
The 950m summit of Helvellyn, just over 10km away, was caked in soft, wet snow up to 90cm deep. Later that day it would be blasted with 70mph gusts, lifting snow into cloud and blurring any visible difference between ground and sky. Red Screes, at 776m, would be marginally less cold, with the chance that it might scoot under the cloud. That night, it was reportedly so cold that the team’s oxygen cylinders froze as they made their…
