An aspiring Three Peaks walker (m, 39) called North Yorkshire Police, who called CRO, reporting that he was on the descent from Ingleborough towards Horton in Ribblesdale, ‘4 miles from the bottom’ and that he had ‘fallen over and broken finger, going into shock. Cannot continue with journey and requires help.’
As the location system used by the statutory emergency services had not produced a result, the CRO duty controller used PhoneFind, which showed the walker to be part-way down the Swine Tail on the Horton path. He was asked to regain the summit and cross to the Ingleton end, where a team member would meet him. Three members drove up to Crina Bottom and one ran up towards the summit, but the walker – with whom there was good telephone communication – was unable to progress. Having slipped on the wet, grassy slope towards Simon Fell Breast and because of the pain, he had lost confidence in his ability to negotiate the terrain. On reaching him, the team member decided that, because of the chilling conditions, he would guide the walker, as quickly as was safe, down the less slippery, stone-pitched route to Humphrey Bottom. Meanwhile the other team members drove the Land Rover round to Chapel le Dale and across fields, with one then walking up to lend moral support. All descended to the vehicle, waiting above Southerscales, and returned to CRO Base.
After inspection, the finger – dislocated or broken – was strapped to the adjacent finger and the casualty was returned to his car, in Horton, from where his sister would take him to hospital.
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