A TRICKY rescue was performed by volunteer member of Clapham-based Cave Rescue Organisation at the weekend following an urgent callout.

The group was called on Saturday afternoon after reports a climber had taken a fall while climbing at Giggleswick scar near to Buck Haw Brow.

Jonty Rhodes, for the CRO said: “On attending the scene, it became apparent that the climber had actually lost consciousness while climbing which then resulted in his fall.

“Yorkshire Ambulance Service paramedics were also on scene and provided initial casualty care, in addition to this, the Yorkshire Air Ambulance was tasked to attend and landed on the grass verge between the A65 and the B6480.

“It was very apparent that the casualty was quite sick and we needed to extract him as soon as possible and get him to the air ambulance.

“This was complicated by the fact that he was on a small ledge with an approximately eight-metre vertical drop to steep slope with dense undergrowth and loose scree some 100 metres from the road.

“Initially, the casualty was lowered (along with a team member acting as ‘barrow boy’) down the vertical face to a position where we were able to get him onto a stretcher.

“Some CRO team members had rigged a safety rope in order to lower the casualty down to the road. Two team members were attached to the stretcher to guide it through the undergrowth on it’s descent down to the road. The stretcher has runners, like a sledge.

On hitting the road, we stopped the traffic while we carried the stretcher down to the YAS ambulance where the ambulance service and air ambulance paramedics treated the casualty before transferring him to the helimed where he was flown to hospital, inPreston.

“This was a brilliant team effort between YAS, YAA and CRO.

“It really was a challenging rescue. Time was definitely of the essence and extracting him from the physical location quickly but safely was definitely a challenge. On a personal note I was incredibly proud of the team that day.”

The CRO was originally formed in 1935 and has grown and developed over the years into the efficient organisation that it is today.

The Cave Rescue Organisation currently has over 80 volunteer rescuers, comprising of an operational team of 52 with a further 36 in a support role. It is called regularly by the authorities to perform mountain and cave rescue duties, and to assist in incidents of a public service nature, such as searches for missing persons.

The organisation is a charity and relies on donations to provide equipment to help its volunteers. For more information go to: https://cro.org.uk/