Rescuers bunny-hop up hill on ski tow to reach injured walker

The team of rescuers used a button tow to bunny-hop up the 478m (1568ft) hill

A mountain rescue team used a ski tow to bunny-hop up a hill to carry out the "unique" rescue of an injured woman.

The hillwalker broke her ankle after slipping on Caerketton Hill in the Pentland Hills, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, at about 17:45 on Sunday.

The incident took place above the Midlothian Snowsports Centre, so Tweed Valley Mountain Rescue Team used one of the ski tows to get up the hill.

Then they made a sledge to get the woman back down the dry ski slope.

Dave Wright, the rescue team's incident manager, told BBC Scotland they had improvised when they discovered the hillwalker was lying directly above the ski centre.

In an effort to get to the woman more quickly in the dark, wet and windy conditions, they used a button tow to get up the hill.

But this presented a challenge because the team of 15 rescuers were not wearing skis.

The team said the rescue was made harder by low cloud and poor weather conditions

"The ski centre said it was quite difficult to master the bunny-hop if you have never done it before," he said.

"The tow pulls you up in jerking motions and without skis you are pulled into the air."

To do it successfully, they had to bounce from one leg and land on the other, before pushing off again.

When they reached the injured woman, the team made a sledge using a stretcher with skids on the bottom.

They then used a long rope to slide this down the dry ski slope to a waiting ambulance at the bottom of the hill.

The woman was put on a makeshift sledge before gliding down the dry ski slope

Mr Wright said the stretcher and the walker would have weighed more than 100kgs (16 stones) in total.

"It's heavy, so by sledging her down it saved us a lot of time," he said.

"The conditions out there were terrible, there was very low cloud and by improvising in this way we saved at least two hours from the rescue.

"This was a very unique rescue and one we are very proud of."

He added that the woman, who was in her 50s, had been kitted out in the correct winter walking gear when she fell.

The injured woman was taken to safety down the dry ski slope