A BUSY weekend for an emergency rescue service based in the Three Peaks area of the Yorkshire Dales saw members team up with an air ambulance on one urgent operation.

The Cave Rescue Organisation (CRO) were called out three times over Saturday and Sunday, the first being on Saturday morning (April 15).

A fell-runner sustained a suspected ankle fracture when she slipped on a muddy patch while ascending Park Fell from Colt Park, near Ribblehead.

Her companions called CRO via North Yorkshire Police, then kept the casualty warm until team members arrived.

After assessment by a team doctor, the casualty’s leg was splinted and she was part-carried and part-sledged down the hill on a Bell stretcher, and taken to hospital.

The second of the days’ call-outs saw the team respond when a Three Peaks walker sustained a lower leg injury as he descended Simon Fell Breast, on the path from Ingleborough to Sulber Nick. He was assessed by the team doctor, splinted and put into an insulated casualty bag before being lifted onto a wheeled Titan stretcher and taken gently towards Nick Pot and the team’s waiting Land Rover.

Sunday saw the third and most dramatic callout.

In attempting to take a photograph from the rim of Hull Pot, a walker ventured too far and fell 18 metres over the edge, landing on the rock-strewn floor open pot.

CRO members arriving at the site found that a North West Air Ambulance helicopter had just landed and, also, a local farmer had transported (YAS) personnel there.

READ MORE: Rescue operation launched as group lost in notorious cave network

CRO team members rigged and descended the gulley at the Eastern end to reach the casualty.

They were soon followed by a YAS paramedic using CRO safety equipment.

While the casualty, who had regained consciousness and was described as quite chatty, was being assessed, other team members rigged a two-line hauling system at the waterfall side of the hole.

The casualty was placed in a vacuum mattress and secured on a stretcher, then he was hauled to the surface.

He was handed over to the paramedics who, with the CRO doctor, assessed him thoroughly again before he was loaded into the helicopter for the flight to hospital.

The casualty appeared to have a head injury and a broken collarbone.