A walker was seriously injured after falling 32ft off Striding Edge.
The 24-year-old man was walking on Helvellyn yesterday, Saturday October 15, when he fell in the area of bad step.
He fell towards Red Tarn and the emergency services were alerted. Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team was already out on a call to help a woman with an ankle injury on Heron Pike, overlooking Ullswater.
The team asked for assistance from Penrith Mountain Rescue Team to handle the first incident, so that resources could be redirected to Helvellyn.
Strong winds, heavy rain and poor visibility meant that an air ambulance had to turn back before reaching Helvellyn, and assistance from a coastguard helicopter was also requested.
Once located, the man was treated for back, pelvis and ankle injuries – he was given pain relief, placed in a full body splint, wrapped in a casualty bag and strapped into a stretcher.
Once on the stretcher he was hoisted back onto the ridge, where during a weather window, the Coastguard helicopter was able to winch him onboard. Two companions of the casualty were then walked off the hill, having become cold and mildly hypothermic.
While all this was occurring, Penrith team, assisted by members from Kirkby Stephen team, had reached the woman with the ankle injury on Heron Pike. She was placed in a stretcher and carried back to the valley to rendezvous with an ambulance at Glencoyne.
The two rescues took six hours and involved 13 members of Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team, nine members from Penrith Mountain Rescue Team, two members from Kirkby Stephen Mountain Rescue Team and a Coastguard helicopter.
