Incident
89 in 2011
Type
Location
Scafell Pike
Other Agencies
,
Diagnosis
Tagged
,

The team were called out to a male walker who had taken a tumble fall whilst descending Scafell Pike.  The walker, in his early thirties, was with his young son and friend when the accident took place.  The group from Cambrideshire were camping at Wasdale Head.  They had reached the summit and whilst descending in very poor visibility, took a slight deviation off route on their descent which led them to Dropping Crag.  Whilst descending the steep boulder field he fell and tumbled 30 metres down the steep ground lacerating and injuring his head and taking a number of abrasions to his body.

Fortunately the fall was heard by a couple who were below them who helped with first aid and the calling out of the team.  13 Wasdale MRT attended and were supplented by a further 14 Duddon and Furness MRT members due to the anticipated difficult carry down.  However, whilst the team were attending the head injury incident a further incident came in for a young fell runner who slipped injuring his ankle accompanied by a punture wound – see following incident.  Duddon and Furness were diverted to assist two members of Wasdale MRT before they could attend the head injury carry down. 

The head injury was given casualty care by the team doctor, whilst the group who were now very cold and wet (particularly the young son who was at risk of hypothermia) were warmed up in a bivvy tent.  The casualty was put into a vacuum matress to protect his neck and spine and stretcher carried off the mountain.  An extremely ardous carry down over broken and steep ground.  The casualty was transferred to a road ambulance at Brackeclose and taken to Whitehaven Hospital for further treatment.  The incident closed at around 9:45 p.m. ,  a seven hour rescue in poor weather over difficult terrain but with superb support from our neighbouring team, Duddon and Furness.  Without their help the evacuation would have taken much longer.

Incident started at 14:30 and ended at 21:45 making 7.3 hrs in total. There were 27 Wasdale team members involved and the incident occured at NY 21335 07419 (altitude 876 m). Total rescuer hours: 197

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