Callout:
Our 5th callout in 6 days not only meant we saw very little of the final 6 Nations Rugby day, it also became a very difficult and technically challenging rescue that saw terrific multi Agency work ending in a great result.
We were called just after 4.00pm by our colleagues at Western Beacons Mountain Search and Rescue Team to assist at Henryd Waterfalls with the rescue of a male walker who, with his two dogs, had fallen some 90 feet from the footpath to the river water edge.
The only access to him was via lowering and abseiling ropes and working with our colleagues from Brecon Mountain Rescue Team, Dyfed Powys Police, Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust, Welsh Ambulance Service HART, Mid & West Wales Fire Service and Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service – EMRTS Wales we set in place a dual rope access system.
Lowering all personnel, medical kit and rescue kit 100+ metres on rope lines into the gorge was followed by extrication the same route using a rope raise method. We evacuated his dogs first, one uninjured, the other with minor injuries and eventually the stretcher carrying our casualty was lifted to the surface with onward stretcher carry across fields to roadside ambulance.
While the rescue operation was going on, a report came in of a hillwalker lost in low cloud and fog near Llyn Y Fan Fach in the Western Brecon Beacons. Team members combining from Western, Brecon and Central MRTs were re-deployed into 2 search groups onto the mountain and located the gentleman who was thankfully uninjured, albeit very cold and able to be walked off.
Once all rescue personnel were raised out of the gorge and off the hill we returned to our respective bases to clean and repack kit, then back home just before midnight.
Our best wishes to both dogs and the gentlemen from both incidents for a speedy recovery.
