New members of Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team got the chance to demonstrate their skills straightaway with two callouts.
The team was called to Scafell Pike at around 3.25pm on April 30 after the ambulance service received a call about a walker who had tripped and sustained a head injury.
A passing nurse helped to dress the wound and the casualty was able to start walking and was met by members of the team who assisted her the rest of the way down. Her husband then took her to hospital.
She posted her thanks on the team’s Facebook page. She said: “My wholehearted thanks to the team for the care I was given in my way down from Scafell Pike.
“Ian, Dan and Mike were very professional and caring, surely reflecting the good training they were given. Also my wholehearted thanks to the people that stopped the bleeding and wrapped a bandage around my head. They even spared one foil blanket to keep me warm as I recovered from the impact.
“I learned that a small first aid kit can make the difference in this kind of accident and will carry one from now on. The outcome was a very swift treatment of eight stitches on the scull by the lovely A&E staff of the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven. My thanks also to them and the NHS.
“It’s not just the amazing scenery and the attraction to the great outdoors that makes it worthwhile climbing mountains. It’s also the solidarity and camaraderie that bond outdoor people. It’s also the generous gift of personal time from these mountain rescue volunteers that discretely make us all safer.”
Twenty one members of the team were involved and the callout ended at 6.40pm.
At just after 4pm on the same day, the team were called by Cumbria police after a solitary walker had informed officers he was feeling unwell.
The location was very close to the previous incident, so team members were already on the hill and met the casualty, who had been helped by members of the public and the team helped him the rest of the way down.
He was then met by his friends in the car park.
