Every year we are kindly contacted by the East Lancashire Group of the LDWA – Long Distance Walkers Association, to inform us of the date, details and route of their Annual Two Crosses Circuit Challenge event.
This event taking in route options of 17 and 25 miles, passes through the West Pennine Moors
taking in the Roman Cross at Affetside and the Pilgrim’s Cross at Bull Hill passing Turton Tower and the Turton & Entwistle Reservoir, and requires appropriate navigational skills.
It is fully supported and marshalled by East Lancashire Group LDWA, and we are made aware by LDWA for information purposes only, as we are not requested to provide Standby Rescue Cover for this particular event.
However every year the organisers ask for a contact number / numbers, should they seek advice or other assistance from the team.
Today at 13.20hrs, our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE was contacted directly by a LDWA marshal point on the event, seeking advice regards a 43 years old female walker in the event, who had sustained a suspected fractured arm.
Webmaster: we have subsequently discovered this walker was not on the LDWA event as previously thought.
The marshal requested help with getting the injured woman from her hillside position on Beetle Hill, to the immediate north east of Bull Hill at Holcombe.
Garry explained to the female caller, that this particular area was actually within the operational area of RPMRT, and he would immediately contact RPMRT with the incident details and that RPMRT would contact them, part way through this call the signal was lost but quickly re-established.
Garry then contacted Pete Goble, Team Leader of RPMRT at 13.26hrs, passing on full details, and Pete initiated a RPMRT call out plus contacted NWAS (Lancashire) Broughton EOC., who informed him NWAA Helimed would also respond once current operational priorities had cleared.
At 13.41hrs our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE was again contacted by the casualty site, requesting an update, it transpiring that RPMRT at this stage could not establish a mobile phone signal at their times of trying with the casualty site.
Garry informed the marshal site of the RPMRT response, and then re-contacted Pete Goble with a casualty site update at 13.41hrs, and at Pete Gobles request, Garry then re-contacted the casualty site at 13.45hrs with an update on the RPMRT response.
At 13.51hrs Garry also updated the NWAS (Lancashire) Broughton EOC Airdesk of the situation at the casualty site, then further liaised with the casualty site at 13.55hrs, all with Pete Goble’s knowledge.
Garry briefed Pete Goble with another update at 13.58hrs, then informed the casualty site what to expect and what to do once NWAA Helimed arrived, and also on the likely RPMRT arrival time.
Our Team Leaders assistance with this incident concluded at 14.01hrs.
At 16.13hrs, Pete Goble RPMRT Team Leader, contacted our Team Leader with an update, and a little twist to this particular incident;
As the RPMRT first members approached the moorland casualty site to treat the woman walker with a suspected fractured arm, they were informed of another incident very nearby, involving a dismounted horse rider, and so RPMRT ending up dealing with two incidents for the ‘price of one.’
Please refer to the RPMRT website and Facebook site for more details of this incident.
This incident illustrates the close operational working of teams in Lancashire and Greater Manchester, and how we can assist each other readily.
This incident is recorded here for the information and interest of our readers and does not feature in our incident listings. (It did however involve our Team Leader over a 41 minute period)
