Terrible news from Keswick MRT

A 60 year old experienced mountain biker was reported as missing after a planned ride round Skiddaw. The Police asked the Team to search his likely route, and a number of Team members, assisted by 6 handlers and search dogs from the Lake District Mountain Rescue Search Dogs, set off to comb the area, focussing on the tracke between Dash Falls, Skiddaw House and Keswick. The missing man’s body was found after 2 and a half hours by a search dog attached to Patterdale MRT, 60 metres down a steep rocky gully close to Lonscale Fell. He had obviously fallen a long way, and had suffered multiple fatal injuries. His bike was found fairly close to a path section on Lonscale Fell which is notoriously slippery when wet,and which has seen a number of accidents.
The Team had to set up a lowering system to safely recover his body 400 metres down to the track below, where it was handed over to the relevant authorities.

Thoughts and condolences to friends and family.

Know a lot of riders up there… Take care everyone.

Very sad. Wasn’t there a very similar incident there relatively recently?

condolences to friends and family +1

🙁

Very sad indeed. The initial report said it took a while for them to work out where he was 🙁

Condolences +1

That story does sound very familiar to one 12-18 months ago even down to the age of the victim.

It’s obviously very sad for family and friends, and must be deeply crushing for them.

So I’m sure we all send heart felt condolences to them.

….but you have to halfway think….good on him for getting out there…and hopefully that will give his folks some comfort.

I ride on my own a lot and I’m not very gifted so I always have in mind Specialized’s video from the early ’90s that went…

IF IN DOUBT, BOTTLE OUT.

Don’t risk lying in a hospital bed for two months rerunning that particular rockfest through your head over and over again, because once you’ve done it, it will always come back to the same hospital bed. If you get off and walk that section, you get to carry on unscathed without the hassles.

I broke this rule about six weeks ago on a solo Lakeland evening ride and crashed heavily down a rocky shute that was too big for my abilities and the bike I was riding. To my relief everything seemed to be working once I got up, so I pedaled home. But I had to visit Furness General the next day because my arm had ceased to function, luckily nothing broken.

You live, you learn. You unlearn, you live …hopefully….and hopefully this has a positive in that it gives us all a reality check…

Very well said BillyBoy….it’ll always be there next time!

Deepest sympathies to his family and friends.

To the search teams and rescuers, well done, its not a job many of us could or would want to do.

My condolences to his family and friends. I passed that section a few weeks back and the potential consequences of failure had me off and walking for quite a bit of it.

Similar to Mike Farthing who fell and was killed in the same place, as mentioned above. Similar age too.

Its a great ride and a well known obstacle. Just catches people out on the damp slate.

Thoughts with the family…

How sad. Terrifying too.

Very sad. My condolences to his family

Poor guy. 🙁

I know that track well, ridden it dozens if not hundreds of times (only cleared it 3 times). However looking back on it, in the days when I was riding it solo aged 16 on a heavy steel MTB with canti brakes, it’s terrifying the risks I took!

RIP fella.

“..multiple fatal injuries..” I’m hoping that this means a quick and fairly painless transition from wet slate to pearly gate.

What tyres for the great beyond?

Is this lonscale crags? The singletrack section with all the slate bits?

Not ridden it for years but always thought there was the potential to get it very, very wrong.

RIP

🙁 sad news,

🙁

Not good – that track always gives me the ‘fear’. I’ve never cleaned that big step but the other half has and it always makes my heart rush! We have had one near miss with an inexperienced rider round there; but this guy sounds like he knew what he was doing – can always just be one wrong half pedal stroke.

Huge condolences to his friends and family.

sad day at work today he used to be the boss here a few years ago.

Rip 🙁

RIP and boy he died doing what he loved. Too soon but you can easily be wiped out on the road by any manner of vehicle. RIP and chapeau. Better than walking round a shopping centre and/or treating going to the pub as a hobby/interest.

Not my pic but is it this one?

Condolances to his family and freinds and a big thankyou to al involved in looking for the chap.

That’s the bit I’m thinking of too.

Rode it on Friday as part of our Mountain Bike Leader course, the wind was coming down the valley in gusts and really strong on the second rock section.

RIP

My paraplegic friend and neighbour rode it last week on his hand crank off roader. His verdict…”bloody scarry”.

Very sad I ride it regularly and often think it could be nasty but just carry on. The last time I rode it I did think to myself it seems a lot smoother and slippier than it did 25 years ago but put it down to not being a an invincible teen anymore.

Ride the dusty trails on other side fella.

If it’s where I think it is I pushed over it the 3 times I’ve done it, no heroics from me nowadays.

RIP.

I’ve ridden it many times but one day it was very wet and I decided to push. The rocks were very slippery. RIP

RIP thats sad news. had an endo there many moons ago and went over the edge, extremely lucky to get away uninjured. Have walked the section ever since (20 years).

I got a phone call at 10.00 last night to tell me the awful news that this was a friend of mine, John Graham of Silloth. John’s death is a huge loss to the outdoor world as he was an experienced caving and canoeing instructor and a teacher specialising in problem kids. John was a big, rugged, ruddy-faced, bearded character, an original Cumbrian, who loved drinking beer, yarning and generally enjoying his life, his friends and his family. John would take no nonsense from anybody and even berated feckless parents of wayward kids, telling them it was their fault not society’s fault that their child was off the rails. It was I who got John into mountain biking when I went to stay one night when they lived in Lowther and the next day I went off for a ride up High Street; John was amazed that I had gone so far on a patch he knew as a walker so he decided he’d better get into this mountain biking lark. I also sold him my old steel roadie, which John said was responsible for helping him convalesce after a serious illness. He was a massive character and he leaves a wife and two grown-up daughters as well as a menagerie of horses, cats, dogs and other family pets.

If the accident did happen where we think, it’s just typical of john that he would have tried to ride the section. His wife and some friends are going up the mountain today to see the place and try to work out in their minds what happened. What a tragic loss, John was one of the million in this world who really mattered.

Condolences globalti

That’s sad news.

Condolences to all family & friends. Very sad.

RIP and godspeed fella 🙁
Condolences to Family and everyone who knew him, sounds like a great bloke. 🙁

Very sad news.

It’s obviously very sad for family and friends, and must be deeply crushing for them.

So I’m sure we all send heart felt condolences to them.

….but you have to halfway think….good on him for getting out there…and hopefully that will give his folks some comfort.

I ride on my own a lot and I’m not very gifted so I always have in mind Specialized’s video from the early ’90s that went…

IF IN DOUBT, BOTTLE OUT.

Don’t risk lying in a hospital bed for two months rerunning that particular rockfest through your head over and over again, because once you’ve done it, it will always come back to the same hospital bed. If you get off and walk that section, you get to carry on unscathed without the hassles.

I broke this rule about six weeks ago on a solo Lakeland evening ride and crashed heavily down a rocky shute that was too big for my abilities and the bike I was riding. To my relief everything seemed to be working once I got up, so I pedaled home. But I had to visit Furness General the next day because my arm had ceased to function, luckily nothing broken.

You live, you learn. You unlearn, you live …hopefully….and hopefully this has a positive in that it gives us all a reality check..

Billyboy,

I completely understand the reasoning behind your post and appreciate your efforts to warn riders to think carefully about the consequences of their actions and ride within their ability, particularly when alone.

However your mantra “if in doubt bottle out” is possibly the antithesis of everything my incredible Dad stood for. He was a brilliant, experienced mountaineer and though I’m no expert was pretty good on a mountain bike. I resent your post for two main reasons;

The first is that it implies he was stupid/irresponsible.He wasn’t. In fact he was incredibly unlucky on Sunday; the coroner got in touch today to let us know he died instantly, before he fell some distance, from a broken neck. He had therefore simply landed very awkwardly. He was just so unlucky.

The second reason I resent your post is because you register how deeply sad and “crushing”this must be for his family but obviously haven’t really registered it because you’ve just made me a bit more sad. Well done mate.

My name’s Ruth, I’m the rider who died’s daughter (sorry I’m using my fella’s login as I don’t have my own!) and I strongly suggest that unless you have something helpful to say or actually knew the stunning, hilarious and all round ace mountain man my Dad was you pipe down.

Safe riding.

John’s daughter x

Ruth,

I did not mean to cause distress to you.

For many years now I have regularly ridden out alone in the evening or at night on the fells, and sundry other wild places, and I’m not far short of your father’s reported age. I admire him for getting out there and I do not reproach him in any way shape or form for doing it.

Please accept my apology for adding to your distress and my heart felt condolences for your loss.

Kind regards,
Bill

Thank you Ruth 🙂

Having lost my brother in a mountaineering accident a month a go I know what your going through so my thoughts are with you all