INCIDENT 63/2018 – Nov. 4th Sun. 14.05hrs – Pen-y-ghent, North Yorkshire – Mountain Rescue

The team were called to a walker on Pen-y-ghent summit who had jarred their back, resulting in much reduced mobility. Together with the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, on arrival at the rendezvous point at Dale Head, it was found that the cloud base prevented the air ambulance accessing the casualty. Instead, the pilot dropped his paramedics off on the hill at the base of the cloud mass, at about 600 metres altitude, so they could walk up to the casualty.

The pilot then returned to the RV point, and shuttled 8 team members and a road crew paramedic, together with a Bell stretcher and other kit to the same point, to speed access to the casualty, so that a stretcher carry could be undertaken. The intention was then to withdraw the air paramedics so the aircraft could be available for further calls, and for the stretcher and casualty to be taken down towards Hull Pot for collection by a team vehicle. Fortunately, just after the stretcher carry commenced, there was a significant improvement in visibility on the summit, which allowed the pilot to land near the stretcher party, and then take the casualty down to the road ambulance at Horton in Ribblesdale, rather than having to endure a longer carry down to the team vehicle for a ride down the rough track to Horton.

The team personnel and the rest of the casualties party then walked down to the team vehicles at Hull Pot, and were all transported off the hill back to Horton. Many thanks to the the YAA helimed crew for their assistance on this call, particularly with the ferry service which considerably reduced the time that was required to reach the casualty.

Volunteer hours: 53