Date: March 8, 2026
Start time: 14:58
Location: Coombs Wood, Armathwaite
Incident Types: Rescue
The Team have been out for their monthly full-day session practising techniques for protecting and lowering a stretcher (with casualty) on steep ground, at Bewbarrow Crag above Swindale. Initially working in small groups, fixed belay points were identified or created - variously utilising ground pins, talons (metal claws anchored into soft ground), nuts or hexes placed into cracks in rock outcrops, trees and boulders. A rescue scenario followed, involving a 'casualty' who had suffered multiple injuries in a fall (complicated by a medical condition). The casualty - who was on the edge of a beck in a gully - was assessed and initially treated by team casualty carers and then extracted on a stretcher down steep ground using a back roping system for protection. Just as the Team were preparing to debrief our training session, we received a request for assistance from NWAS with a casualty who had fallen from a bike and sustained a lower leg injury in a location we know well - Coombs Wood. As the team arrived on site we found that the casualty had been moved to the waiting ambulance. The team stood down and returned to Base to sort out all
Other Agencies Involved: NWAS
Number of team members: 15
Duration: 0 hours 35 minutes
