In front of Morecambe's biggest ever Conference crowd and on a difficult pitch, still frozen in patches, both bosses declared themselves happy with the point.
Morecambe started brightly with Michael Twiss volleying over the bar in the second minute and Wayne Curtis forcing Matty Glennon into a clumsy looking tip over with a 30-yard volley which was dipping viciously.
Carlisle threatened in the early stages themselves when Peter Murphy drilled a shot from the edge of the area just wide of the right hand post.
The visitors were not to be denied for long however and they opened the scoring after 15 minutes when they piled bodies into the box and received their just reward. Brendan McGill and Magno Vieira both had shots beaten down but the ball fell nicely to Karl Hawley whose far post header beat the despairing efforts of Chris Blackburn on the line.
The Cumbrians then continued to press with Vieira looking dangerous. He should have done better when put through on goal moments later after a Jim Bentley error but his shot sneaked just wide of the left hand post.
Vieira did then have the ball in the back of the net five minutes before the break when he finished off a goalmouth scramble, but to his dismay the effort was ruled out for offside.
After struggling with the conditions in the first half the home side came out strongly in the second period.
After 47 minutes Lee Elam had a great chance to equalise when he benefited from Danny Carlton's neat pass but he blazed high and wide.
He was soon forgiven however as the Shrimps equalised moments later. Blackburn was the provider with a great run and cross from the right hand side and Twiss was in the perfect position to slide home his tenth league goal of the season.
After that the game could have gone either way.
For Morecambe Elam was denied by a superb save from Glennon and defenders Simon Grand and Marc Tierney distinguished themselves with superb blocks from Wayne Curtis and Carlton.
At the other end Adam Sollitt made the save of the season from a Peter Murphy volley when he flung himself to his left to tip over a wicked effort.
Sollitt then saved from Murphy again, this time with his legs, before the Morecambe keeper was unfortunately stretchered off after a nasty fall on the hard surface.
Youngster Ryan Robinson was forced to make his debut and after misjudging one corner did well to save at the death from a clever Murphy free-kick as both sides settled for a well-earned point.