Walker apologises after 'cannabis rescue'

One of the walkers said to have been rescued from Scafell Pike after smoking cannabis has apologised to the mountain rescue team that came to their assistance.

The incident sparked a social media storm - but now one of the group has come forward to give his version of events.

When Cumbria Police reported on Saturday evening that four men have been rescued from England's highest mountain and were unable to make their way down again it sparked fury on Facebook and Twitter and a flurry of interest from the national media.

The controversy was sparked by this tweet from Cumbria Police:

Which then led to calls for the men to contribute to the cost of the rescue. Typical of many of the comments was Carmel Bones who said:

Now one of the group has contacted ITV Border to complain that a “social media lynch mob” is “getting out of control” adding that he feared that their identities would become known to their employers.

And he insisted that only one of the group had smoked cannabis.

Using the Twitter handle of Samuel Coleridge he said: “At the time of making the call we were panicking, cold, wet and hungry and knew if it went dark it was going to be hard getting down.

“I can't remember exactly how the emergency call went, but I did tell them it was only one of the four of us who had collapsed and was out cold and that we had been drinking and that he had smoked some cannabis.

“My biggest concern now is that our names could be leaked, as we're all working individuals and I wouldn't want to risk that. Also most of our families have put two and two together which has caused plenty of headaches.”

He said the reason they had gone up the mountain was because they all liked climbing, adding that his friend smokes small amounts of cannabis regularly which was “nothing out of the usual for him”.

“There wasn’t a huge costly rescue operation launched as reported by the police. They made out a helicopter, police officers and ambulances were used, but there were none. The only truth was mountain rescue were alerted and we met them near Boot not on the mountain.

“Of course we are sorry for taking up the time of the mountain rescue team. We carried him down as far as we could and only called as a last resort. We fully appreciated their help and support, because we mentioned cannabis on the emergency call the whole situation was blown way out of proportion,” he added.