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Climber falls 30ft and gets ‘plastered’

by Chris Hudson
24/ 9/2008

THE Alderley Edge Farmers’ Market boss fell 30ft while climbing in Derbyshire and miraculously escaped with only a dislocated toe.

Hugh Munro, 39, of Chorley Hall Lane, was six inches from the top of "Greenacres" at Curbar Gap, near Bakewell, when he lost his footing and fell to the base of the edge.

Buxton and Edale Mountain Rescue teams scrambled 22 personnel after Hugh’s climbing partner, Gemma Platt, called them out at 5pm on Thursday, September 18.

A doctor and paramedics put Mr Munro in a neck brace, onto a spinal board and then carried him for more than a mile off the hillside before taking him to Chesterfield Royal Hospital at 6.50pm for further treatment.

Speaking exclusively to the Express Hugh said: "I’m very lucky – all I’ve got is a dislocated toe.

"The mountain rescue teams were wonderful in getting me off the hillside and, although I was in pain, I was more annoyed that I hadn’t finished my climb."

The farmers’ market organiser for Bramhall, Marple and Poynton added: "I knew where I was climbing was safe to a point but I knew that at a particular part if I fell, I would fall more than the distance of my rope."

The keen climber was kept in hospital until Saturday when he was discharged with a leg in plaster and told not to walk for six weeks.