A mountain rescue leader has played down the potential seriousness of two youths taking magic mushrooms while on an Easter jaunt into the Lake District fells.
Chris Higgins, the leader of Keswick Mountain Rescue Team, said the incident in which the pair were helped down from Stonycroft Beck, at Newlands, after an alert from passers-by on the afternoon of April 8, had been blown out of proportion.
“We have all done daft things and these two lads were up the hill and took these mushrooms and one suffered a bad effect because of it,” said Chris. “But who in their life has not done something a bit silly? We were quite happy to go up the fell and get them down. It was 10 minutes of a job.
“In the dim and distant past it is not unknown for people to go into the hills and smoke a bit of weed and take some magic mushrooms.
“To be honest it was young people doing some stuff that goes on every single minute of every single day in the city. I don’t want to make a thing of it. It was a storm in a teacup to be honest.”
The team was alerted at around 12.15pm by several concerned people who had spotted the group of young people with two under the influence of the psychedelic fungi.
A team spokesman reporting the incident said: “Two in the group were feeling unwell including the driver in the party. The casualties were walked down and given advice by the team medic regarding the timing of their onward travel.”
Magic mushrooms, which can cause hallucinations and feelings of nausea, are class A drugs and it is illegal to possess or sell them. Eleven team members were called out for a total of two hours.
It is not the first time that mountain rescuers have had to be called out to rescue people from a fell who had taken drugs. In 2017, four men were assisted off 3,210ft high Scafell Pike – England’s highest mountain – by members of Wasdale MRT after becoming incapable of walking due to cannabis use.
The team called in air support and an ambulance with a police spokesman saying at the time: “Words fail us.”
Meanwhile, later on Saturday, the Keswick team were called to help four walkers who were descending the Styhead Tarn path towards Seathwaite.
One was reported to have had an ankle injury and another a panic attack. The team deployed but after a short walk from Seathwaite Farm the walkers were found after making good progress down the hill. They were walked back to their car at Seathwaite.
On Tuesday the team was called to help a woman walker who had slipped and injured her ankle while descending back to Seathwaite from Scafell Pike in a group.
Due to poor mobile reception in this area one of the group descended to Seathwaite Farm to raise the alarm. Whilst waiting for Keswick team to assist the casualty made progress down the hill with the aid of passing walkers. When they got to Stockley Bridge they made use of a gate as an improvised stretcher and continued on until the Keswick team arrived.
Pain relief was provided and the ankle splinted. She was then carried on the team’s stretcher to her car for onward transfer to hospital. In the meantime the gate was taken back to Stockley Bridge, put back on its hinges and is in fine working order.
