Harthope Valley

03 January 2022
13:48

The incident on the Bank Holiday involved a solo female walker who had become disoriented and was suffering from cold in deteriorating weather. The female believed she was in the Comb Fell area of The Cheviots and was heading towards Hedgehope Hill. It had been snowing on the hill for sometime and conditions underfoot weren’t good.

The female did exactly the right thing by dialling 999 asking for the Police and requesting Mountain Rescue.

As the Teams were placed on standby and vehicles were being deployed from West Denton and Rothbury, a PhoneFind location was established. The fix placed the female approximately 300m to west of Hedgehope summit. One of our Duty Controllers also spoke to the female walker to check on her welfare and confirm intentions. Throughout the rest of the incident and despite intermittent mobile communications, our Duty Controller tried to maintain regular contact with the female.

Two 4x4 vehicles and foot teams including one search dog were deployed onto the hill to intersect with the female as she made her way down from Hedgehope Hill. Once the female reached the safety of our 4x4 vehicles located just below Housey Crag, she was assessed and rewarmed before being transported back down to the Harthope Valley.

A swift and positive outcome for all concerned.

The incident involved 32 Team members for 4 hours 10 minutes.