At 3pm on 9th August 2020, Guernsey Coastguard received a call reporting that a 60 year old male had fallen 20 feet down a cliff at Le Gouffre on the south coast of Guernsey during a recreational climb. A Coastguard officer and paramedics attended the scene to make an initial assessment and after meeting one of the other climbers, it was quickly established that the Guernsey Cliff Rescue team and RNLI Lifeboats would be required in order to carry out the rescue.

Both St Peter Port All Weather Lifeboat (ALB) and the Inshore Lifeboat (ILB) launched on service at 3:43pm and proceeded to Le Gouffre to standby at the base of the cliff. Cliff Rescue arrived on scene at 3:49pm and after assessing the situation, it was determined that the safest means to extract the casualty was to lower him to the base of the cliff and to transfer him into one of the waiting Lifeboats.

Whilst the cliff rescue was being set up, the ILB collected a paramedic from the beach at Petit Bot. The casualty was safely lowered to the base of the cliff and transferred to the ALB via dinghy with the Cliff Rescue team. Both lifeboats arrived back in St Peter Port shortly after 5:30pm where the casualty was transferred to a waiting ambulance having suffered injuries to his legs and arms.

A spokesman from Guernsey Coastguard said “This was an excellent demonstration of multiagency working with assets from the Guernsey Cliff Rescue Team, RNLI Lifeboats, St John Ambulance Service and Guernsey Coastguard all contributing to a successful rescue”

James Way Duty SAR Mission Coordinator