The busy summer continues
The recent busy spell for BSARU continued through August with a couple of callouts in the Cheviots.
At the beginning of the month, a call came in from a woman who had taken a tumble while walking at the top of Hen Hole - a dramatic and beautiful valley with steep rocky outcrops and waterfalls close to Cheviot summit. By chance, one of our members was up on the summit with his daughter on a day-long hike, and was in a position to get to the casualty very quickly. When Duncan found her, the walker was in considerable pain with what transpired to be a broken lower leg. After making her as comfortable as possible and checking for other injuries, Duncan and his daughter remained with her for several hours, during which the rest of the team was deployed for what could have been a long and arduous stretcher evacuation. Fortunately, a helicopter was available. This came from Prestwick and the casualty was winched into the helicopter and conveyed to a waiting ambulance in the College Valley. She subsequently underwent surgery and is making a good recovery. After their unexpectedly eventful day, Duncan and his daughter completed their walk, watching the sun set behind the Eildons as they descended towards the Bowmont valley with a team-mate who had run up to meet them.
Later in the month, a clutch of our members were called upon to assist the Tweed Valley MR team with the treatment and evacuation of another female walker with a broken ankle. This one did require a fairly long and hot stretcher-carry. Again, the casualty was taken to a waiting ambulance. A&E staff made a point of paying tribute to the quality of the treatment walker had received from the mountain rescue teams who helped her.
A third callout, back in the Cheviots, was unnusual in the fact that no casualty was involved. Reports came in of a cache of high-value outdoor equipment that had been left at the side of the Pennine Way, up on the border ridge. The fear was that its owner had become incapacitated in some way, so a hasty-party from BSARU was deployed to investigate. A rather bizarre collection of very new equipment was found in a wheeled trolley. The trolley, designed for use on well-graded tracks had failed when confronted with the rough ground and rocky slabs along the ridge. A social media search fairly quickly tracked down a few witnesses, both fellow-walkers and even a builder and a shop-owner in Alnwick who had been told by a visitor that he had ditched all his kit on the Pennine Way. The man was eventually traced, safe and sound, and apparently eager for the return of his abandoned kit. Like I said - an unusual one, and the result of some pretty poor decision making. But, you live and learn, and in the end there was a satisfactory outcome.
