A hillwalker was airlifted to hospital with multiple injuries after he fell while climbing the Grey Mare’s Tail near Moffat on Saturday morning.
The man, from the Glasgow area, was with friends who raised the alarm after he lost his footing and fell into a burn which swept him downstream before dropping him 15 metres over one of the upper waterfalls.
He was then carried along in the rushing water before managing to stop himself and a rescue operation sprang into action.
The injured man was winched into a Rescue 199 helicopter and flown to the major trauma centre at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.
Moffat Mountain Rescue Team leader James Coles told the Standard: “He is recovering well in hospital.”
Mr Coles said the fall was “a bit of bad luck” as the walker was with friends taking pictures of the panoramic views above the main waterfall – which plunges 60m from Loch Skeen – but slipped and ended up in the burn.
He said: “He was swept along the burn, then over the smaller waterfall, and was then swept further along the burn.”
“The friends alerted the Scottish Ambulance Service who mobilised Rescue 199 and Helimed Trauma Team helicopters to the location, as well as contacting Police Scotland who requested the assistance of the MMRT.”
Some members of team were already at their Moffat base preparing for probationer training so were able to respond quickly to the location.
Mr Coles added: “Given the complex terrain, the local Scottish Fire and Rescue Service was also asked to respond in order to help Moffat MMRT place the team’s specialist bridge and assist in the extraction of the casualty if the helicopter teams were unable to do so.
“Helimed arrived on location first, passing on a grid reference of the casualty location to MMRT who were then able to make their way to that location. Helimed then landed nearby.
“A winchperson from Rescue 199 extracted the casualty from the water to a safe location on the path, then joined by members of MMRT to assess the casualty.
“Pain relief was administered and the casualty was packaged in a vacuum mattress, casualty bag and stretcher before being winched to Rescue 199 with members of Moffat MMRT tending to the Hi-line to stabilise the stretcher during the winch.”
