A STRICKEN walker told how he feared for his life after getting stranded on top of Helvellyn with three friends.

Mountain rescue teams had to save the four men in freezing temperatures as night fell, not long after they took a 'victory picture' of themselves celebrating at the summit.

After conquering the summit, the men, all in their 20s, decided to fashion their own route down the mountain, which has already claimed three lives this year, but thick cloud cover and cold conditions made it impossible.

To make matters worse, only one of the men had a working phone.

Two of the walkers, Phil Worth and Tom Bryant, both 22 and from the Newcastle area, were attempting to show foreign students Barnabas Ehimare and Ali Qatan the beauty of the Cumbrian landscape at the time.

Four hours after getting into difficulty at 4.15pm last Friday, the group managed to make contact with Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team who guided them to safety.

The rescue team even drove them to Penrith station in time for them to catch the last train back to Newcastle.

Phil Worth, one of the ramblers, said: "We wanted to show a couple of friends what a beautiful place the Lake District is.

“I hadn’t been up Helvellyn before myself but we thought it would be fine since it’s late March.

“It was tough walking up Striding Edge, and when we got to the top we decided not to go back down that way because it was too scary.

“We had a couple of pork pies and some frubes for lunch, and then started plotting how to get down again.

“We started to panic, especially since only one of us had any phone battery left.

“We had run out of options so we turned to the emergency services. It took three attempts to get through to them and clearly tell them our predicament.

“The four of us then just sat down behind the shelter at the summit and waited for the rescuers to come.

“We were so cold - Barny was almost falling asleep and I had to keep waking him up, because I was petrified that if he fell asleep and his body temperature dropped he might not have woken up.

“It took the mountain rescue an hour-and-a-half to reach us which was a long time to be left thinking, and I was honestly really frightened that we might not survive.

“I was thinking daft things like: ‘Why did I have to play so much Candy Crush on the train here so I have no battery left, I can’t even text my mum that I love her’.

“But when the rescue team found us just as it was going dark, the relief was immense.

“They took us down the mountain, and one of them told us that she was actually seven months pregnant. I felt so guilty.

“It was a terrifying experience, but a great story for me to tell the grandkids one day.”

A spokesman for the rescuers said: “The team would like to warn people that although valley temperatures may be mild, severe winter conditions can still be experienced on the tops.”