Two walkers got into difficulty in the middle of Kinder Plateau. They had no phone signal, but they did have a relatively new iPhone, so were able to call for help using Apple’s Emergency SOS via Satellite system. This provided us with a location and an ankle injury. There is very limited text based communication with the casualty party and it has to go through the Apple Relay Centre in Amsterdam.

We deployed Kinder 1 direct to the location, Kinder 2 following with the stretcher. Kinder 3 would follow for additional support. The weather was cold, rain and low visibility making a rescue helicopter not viable at this time. Because of the significant stretcher evacuation across the plateau we ask for assistance from Glossop MRT.

As Glossop were about to deploy, we received a second call direct from Derbyshire Police from two casualties who were cold, wet, benighted but not injured. Their position was around 1.5km north east of our casualty location. This call came from a different phone from the first call. We redirected Glossop MRT to deal with this incident as they could access the location quickly via the Snake Pass and Fairbrook Naize. We asked Buxton MRT to take Glossop’s place in assisting us.

We received some updates from the Apple Relay Centre, with different locations, all between the original location and the northern edge. Given our initial casualty reported an ankle injury, it was unclear how accurate the locations were, whether they were moving and whether we had one or two incidents. We therefore initiated the Kinder Plan, deploying Edale MRT and an MRSDE search dog. The weather had cleared and we were also able to deploy a Coastguard S92 rescue helicopter.

Kinder MRT and Buxton MRT continued with incident 1, searching the area around the first location and then the area around a second location around 100m north east. We also deployed parties to search north from the watershed towards the original casualty site.

Meanwhile, the Glossop MRT initial response party had located the two casualties from incident 2. They were able to confirm that one of their phone numbers was the one used for incident 1. It was clear that this was all a single incident that was now resolved. Glossop MRT walked the casualties to the Snake Pass where Edale MRT returned them to their vehicle in Edale.

Kinder MRT and Buxton MRT returned to base and stood down. The Coastguard helicopter was stood down whilst still on route.

We would like to thank our neighbouring teams and the Coastguard for their help with this particularly challenging incident. Well over 50 MRT were involved in this rescue.

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 Plateau

– Team members: 18 plus Glossop MRT, Buxton MRT, Edale MRT, MRSDE Search Dog, Coastguard Rescue Helicopter

– Duration: 5 Hours

– Volunteer hours on this incident: 90 hours

– Total callout hours in 2025: 4599.75 hours