A CLIMBER who fell at Wyeside beauty spot Wintour’s Leap was carried to safety following a major multi-agency rescue operation.

A climber was rescued after a fall on Wintour's Leap
A climber was rescued after another fall at Wintour's Leap (Nick Hartland)

Emergency crews were called to the popular climbing location upriver from Chepstow on Saturday afternoon (September 5) after two climbers fell near the base of Great Wall, just north of the viewpoint.

It follows another rescue of a fallen climber there four weeks previously.

The injured climber in the latest incident was stretchered out to safety from the difficult terrain.

Severn Area Rescue Association (SARA) were called at around 4.45pm, joining Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service and an Ambulance Hazardous Area Response Team.

Rescuers, including a SARA doctor, made their way to the casualty while a second team prepared equipment in case a rope rescue was required.

Firefighters and SARA volunteers established a rope system using a specialist Larkin Frame, which would have allowed rescuers to haul the casualty up the cliff.

However, following an assessment of the climber and the available routes, crews decided it would be safer to carry the casualty out rather than lift them vertically up the rock face.

The injured climber was safely brought out and handed over to an ambulance at Lancaut shortly before 7.30pm.

SARA thanked everyone who responded and helped bring the operation to a safe conclusion.

The emergency operation followed the lifeboat rescue of a fallen climber there on Sunday, August 9.

SARA on that occasion used a smaller SARA Lifeboat seven to get a basket stretcher to firefighters tending a casualty on the bank.

The lifeboat crew then worked with a fire crew to move the casualty down the mud to the lifeboat along with a HART team paramedic.

Once safely onboard, the injured climber was then transferred onto the larger SARA lifeboat and taken down the Wye to the Beachley slipway and into a waiting ambulance.