Thousands donated to rescue team after unpaid bill

A mountain rescue team says it has been inundated with donations from around the world after it settled an unpaid hotel bill for two walkers.

Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team (WMRT) said it was called to an "avoidable" seven-hour rescue of two young men on Scafell Pike in the Lake District on 29 December, in "treacherous" conditions.

Once off the mountain, a manager at nearby Wasdale Head Inn offered to provide the walkers with snacks and let them stay in a room with a 35% discount, which the pair did not pay for, the team said.

Richard Warren, of WMRT, said since going public more than £5,000 had been donated to the team, which had left them "bowled over".

Warren said the team was "really, really disappointed with the two lads", adding they were both in their late teens or early 20s and not from Cumbria.

Rescue teams can trace the phone number that dialed 999 but Warren said when they rang, the line went dead as soon as it became clear who was calling.

One of the men was using a hospital crutch which Warren said was "unusual" to see up a mountain, especially in those conditions.

In the end, the crutch was left behind and was still with the mountain rescue team.

Donations have been pouring in from the US, Australia and across Europe despite the owner of the Wasdale Head Inn telling WMRT it did not have to reimburse them for the hotel bill.

"It's a remarkable amount of money - we only really needed about £130," Warren told BBC Radio Cumbria.

"We are bowled over by the generosity of support."

Any extra money will go towards the £100,000-a-year running costs of the service, which is made up of volunteers.

Nigel Burton, who owns the hotel, said despite the experience it would continue to help people who needed help after coming off the mountain.

"We're really disappointed but there's no point being angry, we've got to move on," he said.

"I think the overwhelming emotion we've got is how really amazed we've been at the scale of the support and generosity of the public."

Warren added the pair also took two head torches belonging to the team and it would like to see them returned alongside a long-awaited "thank you" for the hotel.

"We want to re-enforce our message that we don't judge, but we do just want a thank you and a return of the torches," he said.

"We got them off safely, they are alive, let's hope they learned a lesson and come back to us."

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