As Cumbria braces itself for an influx of staycationers, a mountain rescue team has been honing its training.

Last weekend Cockermouth Mountain Rescue Team restarted face-to-face training with a series of workshops, including carrying out a rigging exercise above Honister on Great Round How.

A spokesman for the team explained: "Over the last year, we’ve minimised our face-to-face training, avoiding it completely during the periods when infection rates have been highest.

"But as summer approaches, and with the likelihood that lockdown restrictions will soon begin to ease and there’ll be more people out and about in Lakeland fells, it’s important that our skills are up to scratch."

Over the past year, the rescue team had to minimise face-to-face training, avoiding it completely during the periods when infection rates had been at their highest.

Team member Tom Durcan said: “Normally we trained one Sunday a month for the full day somewhere in our area, just to make sure we’re up to speed on various techniques and skills, but since restrictions have been in place, we had to abandon training.

“However, we’ve recently been given the go ahead to train again as long as we social distance and wear appropriate PPE.”

To reduce infection among the other team members, they are also taking lateral flow tests.

“It’s important we get back to our routine and get back in action," Mr Durcan said. "It’s difficult to practice how to rig for a crag rescue over Zoom.

"We’ve only had four callouts over lockdown, but these sessions will make sure we’re ready for anything.”