Walker seriously hurt after 100ft fall from Swirral Edge on Helvellyn (From The Westmorland Gazette)
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Walker seriously hurt after 100ft fall from Swirral Edge on Helvellyn
7:02pm Saturday 10th November 2012 in News
By Steven Bell, Senior Reporter
A WALKER has been flown to hospital with serious injuries after falling about 100ft on Helvellyn.
The man, aged in his sixties and from Lincolnshire, was with his daughter when he slipped on Swirral Edge at about 12pm today.
He sustained multiple injuries, including serious head wounds, a spokesman for Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team said.
The team was joined by two Penrith Mountain Rescue volunteers, the Great North Air Ambulance and an RAF Sea King helicopter.
But low cloud and the location of the incident made it impossible for either helicopter to directly evacuate the man.
Mountain rescuers lowered him down a loose scree slope via stretcher for several hundred meters below the cloud line where the Sea King crew was able to winch him aboard.
Due to the seriousness of the man’s injuries, he was flown directly to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, accompanied by a Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team doctor.
The spokesman added: “Due to the steep and loose terrain, this was a particularly difficult rescue made possible by the excellent co-operation between the team, the Great North Air Ambulance and the naval helicopter crew.”
