A family had been on a walk to the Downfall from Hayfield. They had headed up Sandy Heyes, which is a steep path to the top. They had been walking at different speeds and their 16 year old son had decided to walk on ahead. When they reached the top he wasn’t in sight and they realised they had become separated. They were concerned that the boy didn’t know the route, so they started searching for him. His mum carried on to see if he had made it to the Downfall. When he wasn’t there she called for our help.
The call was passed through to the Mountain Rescue controller, who quickly decided that as we had no way of locating the boy and weather conditions were cold and windy, we needed to start a major search quickly before it became dark. Buxton Mountain Rescue team, Glossop Mountain Rescue team, Mountain Rescue Search Dogs England and ourselves all quickly mobilised to begin searching the area. We also took the decision to send one of our team members down to Bowden Bridge carpark, where the rest of the family were waiting with their car.
We began searching the escape routes off Kinder and sent a party to the Downfall to meet up with the mum who was now beginning to get very cold. Fortunately she had met another group of walkers who escorted her along the edge path towards us. It wasn’t long before we managed to meet up with the group.
After a couple of hours of searching, and not long after we met up with the mum, we heard from our team member at Bowden Bridge. The son had managed to make his own way down and back to the car.
We brought the walking group and the mum back down in our vehicles to reunite her with her son.
Special thanks to the group of guys who took the time to look after the distressed mother and then escort her until we were able to meet up with them. It’s great to see people taking the time to help others on the hills.
Kinder Mountain Rescue Team is staffed by volunteers who give their time free of charge and is funded entirely by public donations.
https://www.justgiving.com/kmrt
– Time: 16:40
– Type: Mountain Incident
– Location: Kinder Scout
– Team members: 17
– Duration: 3.5 hours
– Volunteer hours on this incident: 59.5 hours
– Total callout hours in 2025: 1686 hours
