IT'S been another very busy year for the Grassington based Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association (UWFRA) with once again near record call outs, the completion of a major and much needed building extension and amongst all, the celebration of the team’s 70th anniversary, writes team member David Dennis.

OUR 60 volunteers both men and women dealt with a total of 51 incidents across the area - just six short of the record set three years ago.

We are one of a small select group of mountain rescue teams who cover surface, underground and swift water rescues and our high level training reflects the life saving and indeed dramatic situations we find ourselves dealing with.

Our main rescue categories in 2017 remarkably just about matched the previous years. The largest category being injuries with 13 of which most were lower leg. Five others involved people experiencing medical condition problems. Missing people this year totalled 10 with all but one being us searching for vulnerable people missing from their communities. We had a couple of climbing rescues and five mountain bikers with injuries.

The busiest month was August with nine call outs. We sadly had to deal with three fatalities and while this is three too many at least recent years have been at this level rather than the seven a year average we experienced for a good number of years.

We had three caving rescues - all critical situations and involving many long and as ever arduous hours. Two were in the notorious Providence Pot/Dow Cave system beyond Kettlewell – something of a second home to us. We have attended more than 100 incidents in the cave system over the years. The first involved five overdue cavers from Sheffield University who had become trapped due to rising water levels. The second was just as our 70th anniversary was drawing to a close – just before midnight in fact - a bit of a shock after the celebrations - not the birthday bash we expected but then perhaps rather appropriate.

These two incidents alone took some 2,000 man hours to complete. The third rescue was an out of area incident at Lost John’s Cave in Lancashire where we supplied members and specialist kit in support of the Clapham based Cave Rescue Organisation. We supported three out of area incidents during the year.

Animal rescues have played a major part in our 70 year history with more than 700 animals saved, mainly sheep, which given the area in which we operate, is not unexpected.

However last year only involved us in just one incident - getting a rather large calf out of Strans Gill, near Hubberholme, and as ever it was a struggle. We were in fact still dealing with a dislocated knee injury call out at Brimham Rocks but were able to release a few ‘lucky’ members to this more demanding task The cow was placed in a large builders bag ,scaffolding boards were used to create a flat surface in the gill bottom plus flood sheeting down the sides of the gorge . Only two animals were needing rescuing the year before , it is perhaps strange that while human rescues continue to grow the animals and in particular the sheep just don’t need our help these days - we wouldn’t dream of offering a conclusion on this.

Our eldest customer was a 79 year old woman who was suffering chest pains while out in the Nidd Gorge. Some clever improvisation was needed on this in that we sat the casualty on a bike and slowly wheeled it back up the track to an awaiting road ambulance. Our youngest customers were aged 12 – two of them- a girl student who had fallen while on an expedition in Trollers Gill and a boy trials bike rider at Beckwithshaw with spinal injuries.

A rather comical rescue involved team members acting as huskies pulling on ropes to recover a heavy duty broken down electric wheelchair and its woman occupant through the Strid Woods at Bolton Abbey back to the car park - much to the entertainment of the public as we emerged from the woods. The woman had a lovely time shouting out husky type instructions along the way We made sure we didn't give her our phone number.

The wintery spell earlier in the year gave us a spate of patient stretcher carries from their homes to awaiting road ambulances who couldn’t get nearer – dancing on ice being the nearest we could describe the experiences but all had happy endings.

Technology plays such an amazing part in our rescue operations these days and as such greatly improves the chances of quicker and successful outcomes. So much is now available and it is a question of which get to the top of our wishlist and then which ones we can afford The technology now stretches to best medical equipment and techniques to search abilities and communication. The high level computers we now have also give us amazing detailed statistics helping us to determine the types of equipment , training and manpower to match any rescue trends and injuries and so on. It doesn't however answer why the sheep don’t want our help these days

Financially we are still standing. It currently costs £50,000 each year to keep going. Our financial members ensure we always have enough funds in the bank for a further three years as well as a replacement vehicle before letting us spend any other money. We also had another successful Wharfedale Three Peaks fundraising event our fifth bringing in a record £9,000 and we are already planning the 2019 event for Saturday June 29. Our 70th year was rounded off with a splendid celebration dinner with guest speaker Everest legend Alan Hinkes and early in the New Year we have Sir Gary Verity coming along to formally open our building refurbishment and extension.

We were able to bring in some five new recruits during the year all with brilliant credentials and we feel they will play their part in keeping us out there rescuing people and animals for the foreseeable future. They are currently going through their 18 month probationary period

More details about the team can be found by visiting: uwfra.org.uk