Latrigg (08)

Callout Date: 13/02/2018

A 48 year old man slipped whilst descending, and suffered a serious lower leg injury. The Team turned out swiftly, and two vehicles made their way up to the Gale Road Car Park, and took sufficient kit to immobilise the leg, and protect the casualty from the weather. He was stretchered back to the car park, and put into one of the Team’s Sprinters. As no ambulance was immediately available, the Team took him down to the Cottage Hospital to await an ambulance which would take him to Carlisle for further treatment. The Team returned to base.
Earlier in the day, they had been called to a group of young walkers caught in adverse weather on the top of Blencathra without the necessary navigation equipment. Their position was fixed by the use of SARLOC, the phone based GPS location system, and one of the Team’s controllers was able to instruct them over the phone as to a direction to walk; in a short space of time they had located the path down Scale Fell and were able to get themselves off the hill.
It’s maybe worth pointing out that the area where they were stuck was surrounded by steep drops. If they had not been able to make contact with the Team, the lack of a compass in the party could have led to serious consequences. Every year people die in mountains because of navigational errors – it’s worth learning the skill to avoid such a fate!