Busy year for mountain rescue teams in Northumberland

Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team and North of Tyne Mountain Rescue responded to 77 incidents in 2023.

Iain Nixon, team leader for Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team, revealed: “The core of our responses have been rescues of injured or stranded persons (40) and searches for missing or lost individuals (25) but we’ve also had a busy year supporting local resilience in the wake of some extreme events, most notably flooding events.

“The majority of our incidents involved hill walkers but we’ve also rescued a number of fell runners and mountain bikers.”

He added: “As a volunteer emergency service that relies entirely on donations, it is really quite remarkable that our volunteers have provided over 3,968 hours of voluntary service to incidents alone. This excludes all the time we spend training and liaising with other emergency services.”

In the new year, mountain rescue volunteers are asking the public to make sure that they are ‘adventure smart’ when heading out into the hills.

“Sixteen of the incidents that we’ve responded to this year were ‘avoidable’,” said Iain. “Before anyone sets out for an adventure, remember that you’ll have fewer daylight hours and you can expect it to get dark more quickly. This means you really should be carrying a torch and spare batteries”.

Iain also advises that hill-goers carry enough warm clothing and spare food or a hot drink as temperatures inevitably start to drop.