Castle Naze
- Call out for year: 65
- Date: 15/10/08
- Time: 7:10 pm
- Grid ref: SK053 784
- Type of incident: Climber Injured(1)
- Team members involved: 20
- Time taken: 2 hours, 30 minutes
- Total man hours: 50
Incident report
Buxton team was called to assist a 20 year male from Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk currently a student at Manchester University. He had been leading a route called “Scoop Face Direct”. He came off and pendulumed on his runner protection, falling about 6 metres and hitting a small ledge. His belay failed again dropping him a further 3 metres to land at the base of the cliff. He sustained injuries to his neck and lower back, and was mildly hypothermic. This incident had occurred sometime earlier and due to the lack of a mobile phone signal at the incident site, his climbing partner ran to a local farm to call for assistance.
He was treated on site by ambulance service paramedics and team members, given pain relief and splinted on a spinal board because of his location and the difficult access against the rock face.
Due to the potentially serious nature of his injuries an RAF Sea King helicopter was requested; this arrived from RAF Valley, North Wales. The aircraft managed to land on above the crag in the dark. The casualty was evacuated uphill, partly hand over hand, to the waiting helicopter. Members from Kinder team who were called to back us up were involved in the evacuation. He was then transferred to the Chesterfield Royal Hospital for further treatment. A follow-up indicated that the casualty had been extremely fortunate and had not sustained any serious injuries, however team policy is to always assume the worst case scenario on site until proven otherwise.
2 comments
As the mother of the 20 year old rock climber I would like to say how brilliant all the members of the mountain rescue team and all those involved were on this occasion.
My son is a student at Manchester Uni and he spends all his spare time climbing in the Peak District. He is also a voluntary climbing instructor for the Air Training Corps arm of the RAF, so it is ironic that he should have his first ride in a Sea King in these circumstances. He was in a bad way when the paramedics got to him, he had probably been unconcious for a short while and was certainly unable to move and very cold. His climbing partner, who was relatively inexperienced, has told me how the MRT were also very concerned and kind to him, checking out he was OK to drive, had petrol etc. so he could also get to the hospital safely.
My sincere thanks to you all, it will be in no small way due to you that we will be able to celebrate my son’s 21st in a few weeks time – in one piece, albeit very bruised and tender all over (including his pride I suspect). Amazingly no broken bones and hopefully he will make a full recovery. With sincere thanks, mum.
We would like to express our sincere and grateful thanks to the MRT and everyone concerned for coming to the aid of our injured grandson, William, last Wednesday 15th October at Castle Naze, without which we can’t bear to think of what might have happened.
Your kindness, care and concern to both him and his friend will leave us ever indebted to you all.
Luckily, in time, it appears he will recover to full health. Without volunteers like yourselves giving your time and experience, the world would be a very much poorer place.
We thank you once again.
William’s grandparents