Fall at Thorpe Cloud

The team were called to Thorpe Cloud at Dovedale to a man who had fallen down a steep scree slope.

The incident happened when two men in their early twenties were descending from the popular hill down a steep slope covered with small loose pebbles. One of the men lost his footing and tumbled around 20 feet down the hill, injuring his left ankle.

The team, along with a WMAS ambulance crew, an air ambulance and the Alstonfield and Wetton First Responders attended the scene and a team Land Rover was used to ford the shallow river in order to drive the casualty back across the river and to a waiting road ambulance. He was then taken to North Staffs Hospital for further treatment.


Thorpe Cloud is the most common single location for callouts the Derby team, due in part to the steepness of the hill and the large amount of visitors who climb it all year round.

Team Called to Assist Ambulance Crew in Winster

The team were called out on Saturday afternoon (January 28th) to assist an ambulance crew in Winster who were attending to an injured walker.

The 65 year old woman and her husband were walking along an uneven muddy path only 100 meters from the main road when she twisted her ankle, causing a possible fracture. An EMAS ambulance crew attended the incident but required the services of mountain rescue to transport the woman by stretcher to the road where she was then taken by ambulance to Chesterfield hospital for treatment.

Despite the closeness of the casualty to the road, the nature of the terrain meant that the ambulance crew would not have been able to evacuate the woman by themselves and needed to call in the team.

A team spokesman said: “This is a fairly typical incident for us, where skills practiced in extracting casualties from very difficult locations can be called upon to simply get an injured person across a muddy field.”

First Callout Of Year

The team carried out it’s first callout of 2012 on the first day of the year when they were called to Hartington to evacuate an injured walker.

The 64 year old woman from Bradford had been walking along Reynards Lane in Hartington, which was extremely muddy, when she slipped and injured her right ankle. An EMAS ambulance and crew had attended the incident but due to the conditions were unable to get the casualty to the ambulance and decided to call mountain rescue to assist.

Sixteen members of the team attended the incident and a team Land Rover was used to carry the casualty from the track to the waiting road ambulance, where the woman was then taken to Macclesfield hospital for further treatment.

This was the first incident of 2012 for the team, which had seen a quiet holiday period until then, with no callouts over the Christmas break despite being on call throughout the period. Last year the team were called out 36 times, a reduction from previous years’ numbers, possibly due to the absence of snow towards the end of the year which can dramatically increase the number of calls for the team as they assist the regular emergency service in adverse conditions.

Second Chance for Team Jackets

In a break from their normal method of helping people, the team recently helped homeless charities in Derby and Nottingham by donating around 50 warm waterproof jackets.

The team had replaced their official jackets recently as the previous ones neared the end of their useful life. However, whilst it was decided that the old jackets were no longer suitable for the harshest of mountain conditions, they were more than adequate to be used as warm and waterproof general purpose coats and so it was decided to find good homes for the old stock.

Most of the jackets were given to Padley Day Centre in Derby and Emmanuel House in Nottingham, both charities that provide services and facilities to homeless, vulnerable and socially excluded people in the region. The jackets will go some way to providing much needed additional warmth and resistance to the elements as the temperature drops and the weather worsens over the coming weeks.

A team spokesman said: “Whilst mountain rescue is usually concerned with finding missing people or helping people in difficulties in mainly rural areas, it’s nice in some small way to be able to help a different and disadvantaged section of society by supporting the great work of both the Padley Group and Emmanuel House.”

The remainder of the jackets will soon be en route to Rwanda, where a charity operating in the region will be putting them to good use in a completely different environment.

Weston-on-Trent Search

The team were called out by Derbyshire Police on Sunday (27th November) to search for a vulnerable 73 year old man from Weston-on-Trent, who had been reported missing.

The man, who enjoyed going for long walks, had last been seen by his wife at 9pm on Saturday evening. Police, being concerned for his safety and believing he might have been in a confused state, initially used officers and a police helicopter to search the area around his home, before calling in Derby Mountain Rescue at around 11am.

Thirty mountain rescue personnel and five SARDA search dogs carried out a detailed wide area search around Weston-on-Trent in a seven hour operation, but were stood down after darkness fell when the man was not located within the search area.

Police eventually located the missing person safe and well in the Normanton area of Derby at around 7pm, having walked the distance from his Weston home.

Staunton Harold Reservoir Search

The team were called out by police on Friday (28th October) to search for a missing man, believed to be in the vicinity of Staunton Harold Reservoir.

The man had been missing since Wednesday and police had become concerned for his safety after his car had been found in a car park near the reservoir, a popular location for walkers. Mountain rescue were brought in to search the woodland and areas surrounding the reservoir and nearby Calke Abbey. The man was eventually located, safe and well, in a wooded nature reserve, having constructed a makeshift shelter from undergrowth.

Nineteen members of the team took part in the search, supported by 3 SARDA search dogs and a police helicopter. Police officers were also involved in searching farm buildings an properties in the surrounding area.

A mountain rescue powered boat and canoes were brought to the scene in readiness for a search of the reservoir itself, but these were not deployed as the man was located before the team’s water section were put into action.