Gormire Lake Rescue

Wednesday 10th June 2020. Things have started to get very busy for the Team in recent weeks! We were contacted by the Yorkshire Ambulance Service at 2.26pm to assist with a 60-year old woman from Asenby, near Thirsk who had been injured after falling whilst walking with family members near to Gormire Lake (below Sutton Bank). Team members were deployed together with our two Land Rover ambulances. Upon our arrival the woman was being treated by ambulance paramedics for a lower leg injury. One of our Team doctors and other Team members were able to assist. The location meant a 700-metre carry-out along muddy and uneven tracks on one of our specialist mountain rescue stretchers (which was ‘sledged’ along some of the smoother sections). She was then transferred to a waiting ambulance and transported to hospital for further treatment. 

This was quite an arduous rescue for the Team in humid conditions around the lake area, as they were wearing PPE and waterproof layers in compliance with our COVID-19 procedures. 12 Team members (and 2 dealing with the call-out remotely), plus others on standby, were involved in the incident which lasted approximately 2.5 hours. The Team Land Rovers were then taken to our Base and decontaminated taking another 1.5 hours for some members. Some of the Team members involved in this rescue were then back out training later that night.