The CRO Land Rover

A hat-trick of Three Peaks walkers, two mountain bikers, an elusive walker and a sheep provided a busy weekend for rescuers in the Yorkshire Dales.

Despite the high temperatures, none of the incidents involved walkers in trouble with heat exhaustion, but Whernside proved a hot-spot for accidents with a suspected broken ankle and two other leg injuries. The Cave Rescue Organisation – which also carries out fell rescue – dealt with six incidents in five hours on Saturday.

A 43-year-old man from Guiseley, West Yorkshire, was treated on Saturday by an air ambulance paramedic after he fell descending the 736m (2,415ft) Whernside while attempting the Yorkshire Three Peaks, a 39km (24-mile) challenge walk. He was carried by CRO members to the waiting Yorkshire Air Ambulance, which ferried him to a road ambulance for the journey to hospital.

Almost immediately, the rescuers were called to a second man, aged 26, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, who had also fallen, further up the mountain, injuring his leg. He was helped to the CRO Land Rover, which took him to same waiting ambulance containing the first casualty.

Earlier in the day, the team had been called by a farmer whose sheep had tumbled down Upper Long Churn Cave at Selside, near Horton in Ribblesdale. The sheep, which had broken its leg, was extricated from the cave before human casualties became the focus.

Following the second Whernside casualty, the team was alerted to a York mountain biker, aged 26, who had suffered serious injuries in an accident while coming down Thwaite Lane, near Clapham. He had a penetrative abdomen injury and abrasions after coming off his bike. He was carried by stretcher to a road ambulance, then to an air ambulance which took him to hospital.

Duty controller Tom Redfern commented: “By now, any team member who hadn’t had an early lunch was really regretting it, because the next call was back on to Whernside again.”

Whernside, scene of three separate incidents

Another walker, this time a 22-year-old Hull woman, had injured her ankle. She was carried by stretcher to the CRO’s Land Rover, which ferried her to a waiting road ambulance at Ribblehead.

Before the team could stand down, its help was requested by the North West Ambulance Service who had been called to a report of a 65-year-old man who had collapsed ‘near the second viaduct’ at the head of Dentdale. CRO members, helped by ambulance staff, searched between Ribblehead and Arten Gill, but failed to find anyone needing their help.

Sunday was the date of the Broughton Game Show, a major event the proceeds of which go jointly to the CRO and Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association. Having completed their car-parking duties at the event, the CRO was called to a 41-year-old mountain biker from Bradford who went over his handlebars on Long Lane, below Pen-y-ghent, travelling between Kettlewell and Helwith Bridge. He suffered extensive injuries, including chest and knee injuries and a painful sternum.

Rae Lonsdale of the CRO said: “He also damaged his helmet, possibly in collision with a wall.  Had he not been wearing a helmet, that collision with the wall might have been directly to his head.”

A paramedic treated the biker and gave him pain relief. He was carried to an air ambulance by CRO members, ambulance staff and the man’s companions, then flown to the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

Mr Lonsdale pointed out such a busy June weekend is unusual. He said: “Being used to having a ’silly season’ in the rains of November, members of the Cave Rescue Organisation were taken a bit by surprise.”

In common with many other rescue teams, the workload of the CRO has increased substantially. The weekend took the team’s callout tally to 46 this year. In the whole of 2008, the CRO had only 50 such incidents.