Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team
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Rowan Kay, 15, and Caelan Blades, 16, helped a group of five stranded adults down a snowy mountain ridge in England earlier this month
The group, one of which had a small dog with them, were wearing jeans and sneakers and had no climbing equipment with them for the ascent of Helvellyn, which is the third highest mountain in England
"I was watching this lady slipping around in the snow like she was on a treadmill," Blades said of coming across the group
Two teenage boys are being praised after rescuing a group of ill-prepared adults and a small dog from the snowy mountains of the Lake District in England.
On Jan. 10, 15-year-old Rowan Kay and 16-year-old Caelan Blades were climbing Helvellyn mountain — the third highest mountain in England at 3,117 feet — when they came across five adults who were dressed in jeans and sneakers, according to reporting by U.K. newspapersThe TimesandCraven Herald.
The group were also without gloves and the correct climbing equipment for their feet, per theCraven Herald.
The teens were ice climbing and were beginning their descent from the summit of the mountain to a ridge called Striding Edge when they noticed the adults were stuck.
With a Coast Guard helicopter and an air ambulance involved in a rescue mission on another part of the mountain, Kay and Blades decided to help the group themselves. (It was later announced that a man in his 70s had collapsed and died on the mountain that day, according toThe Times.)
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"We were seeing more and more unprepared people as we came down and then Rowan pointed this group out to me and it was like, 'Oh my days,' " Blades, whose father is an experienced hiker, toldThe Times. "I was extremely shocked, we couldn't believe what we were seeing, they didn't have any correct clothing or equipment."
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Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team
"We were asking them, 'Do you know where you are?' and 'Do you need any water or clothing?' They didn't really understand us because they didn't speak much English, I think they were eastern European," he continued. "I was watching this lady slipping around in the snow like she was on a treadmill."
Another climber told Blades and Kay he had spent several minutes helping a woman from the group who was carrying her dog.
The woman had to be helped "down step by step" due to being "frozen up with no gloves, no crampons and she was having a panic attack," Blades said.
Video footage captured by Baldes and shared by the outlet shows the rescue operation, with the teens helping the group down the snowy ridge as one held onto their dog.
Ashley Cooper/Getty
The boys helped the group go down Striding Edge in a zig-zag pattern with the operation taking around 30 minutes for them to reach a path that would them take down to a nearby village.
As they continued their climb, Blades and Kay said they came across three more groups who were trying to climb the mountain despite there only being 90 minutes left until sunset.
Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team
"None of them had ice axes or crampons and we were warning them not to do Striding Edge," Blades toldThe Times. "Some of them said they didn't even have torches."
Following the incident, Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team invited the pair to visit their headquarters.
Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team
"Helping the people off the mountain was a kind thing to do - they showed some strong mountain skills along with maturity," Patterdale Mountain Rescue Teamwrote on Facebookalongside photos of the visit. "We did discuss with the boys, that when seeing people in trouble mountain rescue are here 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to rescue those in need."
The rescue added, "The team has the appropriate equipment and experience needed to get out in all conditions."
"Great to see two young people, with appropriate knowledge in the outdoors, wanting to develop their skills and experience, they could be the mountain rescuers of the future," they concluded.
PEOPLE has contacted the Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team and HM Coastguard for further comment.
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