2022 – A BUSY AND VARIED YEAR

From walkers exhausted in the heat to ‘white van man’ stranded in the snow and from pot-holing sheep to an injured caver needing hauling 80m to the surface, 2022 was a very varied year for members of the Cave Rescue Organisation. Of course, the 96 (ninety-six) incidents and eight alerts (resolved without team members going out) included a lot of ‘routine’ rescues. In all, the team went out to 113 (one hundred and thirteen) people, six sheep, two dogs and one cow. 24 (twenty-four) walkers sustained ankle or other lower leg injuries, while others had overestimated their fitness to tackle the Three Peaks Walk or the Ingleton Waterfalls Trail. In addition to walkers (casual- and challenge-distance), people aided included cavers, climbers, people ‘at risk’, fell-runners, an angler, a conservation volunteer, a footballer, an off-road cyclist, a shoot participant, a show cave visitor, a trail-rider and a tree surgeon – not forgetting ‘white van man’ who followed his satnav up Kingsdale in thick snow. Sadly, CRO members had to deal with three fatalities. The team’s dog-handler and his search dog assisted rescue teams in other areas on 12 occasions, with two ‘finds’. CRO would like to thank all who helped during the year, particularly the management and customers of Ingleton Co-op and Booth’s at Settle. A fuller story of the year will appear in the CRO annual incident report — Rescue ‘23 – available in March.