At 04:38, early this morning (although it was already daylight!), the team was paged by NWAS (Manchester) Emergency Control Centre, who were requesting our assistance at an incident on the summit of Rivington Pike.

NWAS had been called slightly earlier to the report of an intoxicated and hypothermic male on top of the Pike; and so sent an NWAS Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) 4WD vehicle, co-incidentally attending another local incident in Horwich at the same time, to Rivington Pike.

Unfortunately the NWAS HART vehicle could not gain access to the summit owing to a very sturdy padlocked gate on the access track. With the male casualty unable to make his own way down, the responding NWAS HART Paramedic walked to the top to assist the casualty, and asked for Bolton MRT to be called in order to open the access gate and to drive the casualty down
(we hold keys for all the access gates in the area).

A very quick response was made to this incident, with the first team vehicle going mobile within 5 minutes of the initial call (it had been crewed & based for the night at the nearby Bibby’s Farm Scout Camp, just outside Chorley) and arrived on scene with two personnel on board along with our Deputy Team Leader’s vehicle at 05:00, where we met with the NWAS Emergency Ambulance which had also been called.

The gate was then unlocked and opened and the Bolton MRT Land Rover Ambulance and Deputy Team Leader’s vehicles both travelled to the top to meet up with the NWAS HART Paramedic who had insulated the 46 year old male from the cold – it had been reported that he had been on the summit since about 03:30 in the morning. The man was then assisted into the team’s Land Rover and driven down to the base of the Pike where we was transferred to the waiting ambulance which departed for Royal Bolton Hospital at circa 05:24.

A total of 8 team members were on scene attending this incident in two team vehicles, along with a further 10 team members stood down responding.