Two taken to hospital after Peak District incidents in busy day for mountain rescue teams

Peak district mountain rescue teams faced a busy weekend after a spate of incidents landed walkers in hospital.

Walkers who had been out enjoying the clear weather after a spell of rain had to be rescued by Edale Mountain rescue in two separate incidents within a few hours on Saturday afternoon.

The first call out came at 1.30pm, after Derbyshire Police had been called about an incident near Back Tor on the great ridge. Police requested help from the mountain rescue team.

Edale Mountain rescue said in a statement: "A walker had taken a slip and suffered a painful lower leg injury. Luckily a number of team members were already at our base in Hope and were able to rapidly travel to Only Grange Farm before climbing to the ridge and locating the informants.

"The casualty was given strong pain relief before their leg was splinted and they were then packaged and sledged back down to the farm for onward transport to hospital.  A big thank you to the farmer at Only Grange for helping us park on his property."

Then at 4.25pm, the team received another call out, after a walker slipped and fell awkwardly on mud, sustaining a painful ankle injury near Thornbridge.

Passing walkers initially came to their aid and then the mountain rescue team was called, while its members were still at base tidying up from earlier call-out.

They said in a statement that the injured person was given strong pain relief, the injury splinted and carried back on a mountain rescue stretcher to a waiting ambulance.

Edale Mountain Rescue is a charity run by volunteers. Log onto https://www.justgiving.com/edalemrt to make a donation.

Edale Mountain Rescue helped more than 110 people last year including 22 climbers, seven mountain bikers, two runners and someone stuck in deep mud.

The organisation, which also rescued 82 walkers, was called out 157 times in total - one of the top five busiest years in its 67-year history.

The team also attended nine fatalities last year.