Sunday 25 May 2014

Climber Falls at Marmolatta Buttress

Just after midday, the Coastguard team along with both Swanage RNLI lifeboats and Rescue 106 were tasked to near Anvil Point.
The report was of a climber in difficulties and requesting urgent assistance.


The climber was on a climb below this photo but shows the area.
Rescue 106 assessing the scene. The Coastguard team set up the cliff equipment to provide cliff top safety, meanwhile the lifeboat crew had managed to get ashore and started to treat the climber.
  The helicopter crew winched the injured climber to Poole Hospital.

It appears a rock gave way which made the climber swing into a boulder injuring his chest but thankfully his safety equipment stopped him from hitting the ledge below.




6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome guys and gals!

Roger E said...

Thanks everyone for such a professional job, and all your help and care. I was not getting out of there without you! Fortunately nothing broken but I will be a bit sore for a while. Roger E.

Swanage Coastguard said...

Roger - thank you for getting in touch we are very pleased to hear nothing broken.

Andy Heald said...

Well played fellers, that's a great job well done. I do hope that nobody misinterprets the comment that some climbers continued to climb during the incident as an implied criticism. As any climber knows, when you have started on a climb, usually the safest way out is to continue. In an area of loose rock, I'm sure that you wouldn't have wanted them to attempt to pendulum across to help and risk a bigger incident.

CG said...

Thanks for the comment Andy, It was a very fluid situation, and the climbing group to the west continued as there was little else they could do. As you say it was probably safer to continue.

They were advised that the down swash from the helicopter rotors would be considerable and that they might like to hold on very tight while watching out for debris.

We work under a protocol called Hierachy of Rescue where we prioritise safety; bystanders (or other climbers in this case) are actually higher up the priority list than the casualty. We don't want others getting injured.

CG said...

Thanks for the comment Andy, It was a very fluid situation, and the climbing group to the west continued as there was little else they could do. As you say it was probably safer to continue.

They were advised that the down swash from the helicopter rotors would be considerable and that they might like to hold on very tight while watching out for debris.

We work under a protocol called Hierachy of Rescue where we prioritise safety; bystanders (or other climbers in this case) are actually higher up the priority list than the casualty. We don't want others getting injured.