Pub staff and dog in snow rescue

The snowcat was lodged at 45 degrees in the drift

Cumbrian mountain rescuers have saved a pub landlady, her two staff and their dog after they became stranded in a giant snowplough.

Tracy Daly left her pub in North Yorkshire to get medication for one of her employees when her Haglin snowcat ground to a halt in a 7ft snowdrift.

Their giant rescue vehicle overheated on the Durham and Cumbria border, six miles from her pub, the Tan Hill Inn.

Kirkby Stephen mountain rescue team found them after a two-hour search.

Ms Daly said: "The vehicle was lodged at 45 degrees in the snow and we couldn't move.

"The snowcat has tackled bigger drifts than that but I think the engine must have gone.

"We were getting pretty scared when we had been there for about an hour and it was getting dark, my feet had started to suffer from frostbite."

Mountain rescue teams had to walk for a mile to find them

Ms Daly had taken bar staff, Paul Richardson, Ellie Chadwick and the pub's Jack Russell, Sherbert, in the rescue vehicle.

Arthur Littlefair, team leader of the Kirkby Stephen Mountain rescue team, said: "We managed to drive part of the way up but then we met huge snow drifts.

"Six mountain rescuers had to walk for 10 minutes to find them and lead them to safety, they weren't injured but they were pretty cold."

Ms Daly added: "I just feel a bit embarrassed now, especially because I should know how bad it can get up there.

"We will have to stay in Cumbria for the night because the roads are so bad and a local skier is going to try get to the pub tomorrow morning to make sure my two kittens and chicken are okay."