Keswick Mountain Rescue have officially opened the state-of-the-art extension to their current base with Leo Holding cutting the ribbon.

On Sunday, April 21, a small crowd of invited quests gathered to officially celebrate the opening of the new state of the art extension at Keswick Mountain Rescue’s base.

The building work was completed some months ago but it has taken some time to complete the necessary transformation of the interior.

After an introduction by second generation mountain rescuer Jonny Hume, the Keswick’s Chairman James Lamb gave an overview of the history of the team bases from their humble beginnings in garages on the side of the central car park to the facility as it is now.

Talking about why this extension was necessary with the growing demands in terms of number and variety of rescues and the greater capability it now provided.

The Keswick team are already approaching 50 call outs this year having reached 104 in 2023.

James Lamb then handed over to the special guest, local climbing legend Leo Houlding to say a few words and officially open the base.

Leo jokingly apologised for the absence of Sir Chris Bonnington who had opened the original base, “he was away in London.”

Leo was impressed by the base describing it as “probably the most advanced mountain rescue facility in the country.”

He went on to reminded everyone that this service is provided for free in the UK and is available 24/7 whatever the weather.

He emphasised that the team is run by volunteers and is funded completely by donations “by the public, for the public.”

Anyone wanting more information on how to donate can visit Keswick’s website here.

The base now also serves as a Silver Command Centre which is a place to coordinate responses to multi-agency events such as floods, major weather-related incidents and search and rescue incidents.