A big rescue mission was launched on the moors above Marsden to help a stricken cyclist.
The mountain bike rider, a 28-year-old woman, was badly hurt in a fall in the Wessenden Valley.
She suffered a badly-dislocated elbow but was helped by walkers and by members of the Holme Valley Mountain Rescue Team before being airlifted to hospital by the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
She was flown to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary with serious arm and shoulder injuries.
The drama was captured on camera by Huddersfield businessman Mark Schofield, who was walking on the moors with partner Jayne Cowgill.
He said: “It happened on the Pennine Way, some 500 metres or so above Wessenden Lodge.
“It seems the woman and her colleague who were both on mountain bikes had been admiring the views in the Wessenden Valley having come up from Marsden.
“There are a growing number of bikers using the tracks up there.
“She set off to ride back down the hill but caught her front wheel in a drainage ditch, which was about a foot deep, and crashed.
“It was immediately apparent she was badly hurt.
“Some walkers stopped to help and the girl’s companion rode back to Wessenden Lodge to raise the alarm, as there is no mobile coverage in parts of the valley.”
Gill Howarth, of the Holme Valley team, said: “Luckily it was good weather although it was quite windy on the tops.
“We got a call about 2.30pm and we had the first of our 14 volunteers on site by about 2.45pm.
“Two walkers doing the Pennine Way had stopped to help and they said they had been helping her for about two hours, covering her with an emergency blanket.
“It was in a spot some three miles off the road but a paramedic rapid response team and a road ambulance crew from Yorkshire Ambulance Service did arrive.
“They treated the injured rider for a while before she was put on a rescue stretcher and our team members helped carry her down into the valley where the Air Ambulance had landed.”
The Holme Valley Mountain Rescue Team is manned entirely by volunteers and is a charity funded by the generosity of the public.
The team is currently on an urgent fundraising drive to raise £50,000 over the next two years in order to complete the purchase of Marsden Fire Station, which would give the team its first permanent base in its 48 year history.
The sale was negotiated with West Yorkshire Fire Service after it was announced earlier in the year that the fire station was to be closed due to cutbacks.
