Mountain rescuers help two teens after cliff fall

At 1.45am on Thursday, May 30, Buxton Mountain Rescue Team were called to Haddon Grove Farm, near Monyash, following the report of three people having fallen from a crag in Lathkill Dale.

Two nineteen year old males had fallen approximately twenty-five feet from a limestone cliff landing on a steep grassy slope.

The men had sustained suspected spinal injuries and one had a possible fractured leg. A third man, who had gone to their aid, had become stranded and was suffering from hypothermia.

Crews from East Midlands Ambulance Service were first on scene together with a specialist EMAS Hazardous Access Response Team. The casualties were treated by the professionals whilst 15 members of Buxton Mountain Rescue Team set up a rope rescue system ready to lift the stretchers back up to the top of the dale.

The injured casualties were secured into specialist body splints and secured to rescue stretchers for the difficult extraction.

The whole evacuation took over two hours and was completed in total darkness and heavy rain. Finally, the casualties were transferred by ambulance to hospitals in Chesterfield and Sheffield.

Buxton Rescue Team Leader later commented that this was a fine example of the emergency services working together in difficult circumstances which is the result of great co-operation built up over a number of years.

Buxton Mountain Rescue Team returned to base at 5am and began the process of cleaning and making the equipment ready for the next call-out.

All mountain rescue team members are volunteers and totally dependent on charitable support.