Two incidents stretch Mountain Rescue team to its limits

The rescuers were first called at 12.30 pm as back up Edale Mountain Rescue team which was attending an injured walker on a footpath near to the village of Calver.

An elderly man was descending a steep, muddy footpath through the woods when a simple slip resulted in a twisted and painful knee. Edale Mountain Rescue Team was first on scene and started the casualty assessment and treatment.

The 77 year old man from Fulwood, Sheffield was gently lifted on to a rescue stretcher and then carried about half a kilometre back towards Calver where an East Midlands ambulance was waiting to transfer him to Chesterfield Hospital.

Four Buxton members stopped to assist at the Calver incident whilst another four continued on to a second incident at Grindleford.

A sixty-five year old solo walker from Hucknall, Nottingham had started to feel unwell and then fell sustaining head, neck and shoulder injuries. East Midlands Ambulance Service was first on scene and had started treatment as mountain rescuers arrived. Following the administration of pain relief the man was placed on a stretcher for the short but steep carry back to the waiting ambulance.

Roger Bennett, speaking for the rescue team said, “Summer is traditionally the busiest time for rescue teams in the Peak District and sometimes it can be the most difficult period for the voluntary teams to resource.

Team members take holidays just like anyone else and employers begin to complain when their staff are repeatedly leaving work for an incident. Call-outs can sometimes require over twenty people to deal with the incident and finding those members in summer can be a challenge.

Fortunately the four High Peak rescue teams, Buxton, Edale, Glossop and Kinder, work well together and one can always count on the support of another when available numbers gets a little thin.

“Today was classic example of that mutual support.”