In reply to CragHead:
Thanks for the concern everyone.
Tim is basically fine - he's still in Northern General, where the CT scan does show a fractured vertebra, but no surgery seems to be required. He should be out on the 2nd Jan all strapped up, and then it's a few months of rest and physio.
The MRT, air ambulance, Northern General and the climbers on the scene were AMAZING. Helicopter on the ground in 10 mins, Steve the MRT doctor in 15 mins, full team in 25, back down in an ambulance in 45 and in hospital within 90 minutes of falling. Donations will be made to the Buxton and Edale MRT, and a big thanks to all on scene who helped with the stretcher carry.
The answer to one post is that it IS handy for climbers on scene to pop over. Firstly, the banter took Tim's mind off the agonising pain, secondly, the MRT needed a chain of people to get the stretcher through the boulder field. The more people, the faster. The stretcher FLEW down to the car park thanks to the 25 odd people who helped out.
Northern General is evidently staffed mostly by climbers judging by the stream of really friendly doctors and nurses who popped in to share their stories of falls and injuries, having heard over their MRT alerts. BIG thanks again, a shining example of what the NHS should be.
What happened is that Tim rested on the top piece of gear out of 3 decent-looking nuts in the solid-looking crack. We think the crack expanded, popping the small top nut. The second piece was not great anyway and popped. The last piece was good, but we'd obviously back-clipped and the rope unclipped itself. Lessons to learn in terms of gear placement, care in clipping the rope, and not pushing grades on trad.
Thanks again to all on-scene, apologies for disrupting people's day and to all the MRT staff who showed up mid shopping trips etc.
Regards
Paddy
