Busy weekend for Northumberland mountain rescue teams

Rescue of fallen walker at Thrunton Woods.

The latest call-out for the Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team (NNPMRT) and North of Tyne Mountain Rescue Team (NOTMRT) involved a rock climber with a lower leg injury.

Iain Nixon, team leader for NNPMRT said: “Late Sunday afternoon, we received a request from the North East Ambulance Service to assist in the rescue of a fallen rock climber at Kyloe in the Wood crag, north of Belford.”

“Given the potential seriousness of the incident, we immediately deployed resources in our team vehicles on ‘blue lights’ and called the teams out.”

Rescue of a fallen rock climber at Kyloe in the Wood crag, north of Belford.

The mountain rescue volunteers, along with the community paramedic and NEAS ambulance crew arrived at the scene and made their way to the crag, where the climber and companions wered. Once the casualty was immobilised, the team carried him a short distance to the waiting ambulance. The incident involved nine mountain rescue team members for 2 hours 50 minutes, with a further eight members stood-down en-route to the scene.

The teams were called out twice on Saturday. The first was to assist a female walker who fell and sustained a leg injury in Thrunton Woods in the morning. The family who was with her did the right thing in dialling 999 and asking for Northumbria Police who then activated mountain rescue.

A team vehicle was swiftly deployed and once the casualty was treated by the community paramedic, mountain rescue volunteers were able to carry her to the nearby ambulance.

In the afternoon, another walker sustained a lower leg injury while descending Scald Hill in the Cheviots. Again, the help of mountain rescue was requested and the volunteers were called out. Fortunately, as the teams were travelling, information came through that a local estate worker had managed to pick up the woman in a 4x4 and transport her back to the valley where she was treated. The incident involved eight team members for an hour.

The past two weeks have been a particularly busy period for the rescue teams with 13 incidents so far.

“All the incidents in the hills and forests or on the crags around Northumberland have been genuine accidents and could happen to anyone no matter how experienced or well equipped.” Iain said.