AN AMBLESIDE man had a narrow escape after stumbling and sinking up to his armpits in a bog while walking on the Lake District fells, reports Paul Duncan.

Nigel Wright, 50, had set out around the popular Fairfield Horseshoe with his wife Ann when, on the ascent from Low Pike to High Pike, his foot crashed through a crusty piece of earth to reveal a bog below and he quickly found himself knee-deep in slime.

"Every time I tried to move, I was going deeper and deeper into it," he said.

Despite sinking into the bog he managed to keep his head and calmly attempted to free himself from the quagmire.

"I was calm at the time but I don't think I'd grasped the seriousness of the situation," he said.

Despite his efforts, even the slightest movement caused him to sink further and he quickly found himself up to his armpits and starting to become desperate.

Meanwhile, his wife was trying to pull him out using her walking pole but she was not strong enough to free him. Luckily, however, a walker, who was following the same route as the couple, sprinted to the rescue.

With scant regard for his own safety, the young man spread himself over the sodden ground to distribute his weight and pulled Mr Wright clear.

Mr Wright is in no doubt what would have happened if the man hadn't shown such courage: "I can truly say that without his help I would not have been able to get out and would have continued sinking with inevitable consequences!"

Deputy leader of Langdale and Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team Keith Morgan said that the team had been called out to rescue people from bogs in the past but incidents on the Fairfield Horseshoe were rare.

"We once rescued someone in the Langdale Valley who had tried to jump over a bog but lost his footing and became trapped. That was only knee-deep though," he said.

Mr Morgan blamed recent weather for the boggy conditions and recommended the use of walking poles as a means of testing the stability of the ground ahead.