To the rescue
For those of us that enjoy the great outdoors it’s reassuring to know that if things do go wrong out on the hills there’s a dedicated group of people who will be coming to our aid
The secrets of a Mountain Rescue Team
MOUNTAIN Rescue Teams or MRTS comprise groups of dedicated volunteers up and down the land who give up their time to help those in distress. From the very start, the vehicle of choice for these stalwart folk has been the Land Rover; beginning with the Series I right up to the last of the line original Defenders. The familiar boxy shape of a Land Rover arriving on the scene meant the promise of rescue. With the end of production, however, these teams are now faced with a dilemma: do they keep their ageing Defenders going a few more years or look for an alternative? Many already use Japanese pick-ups as support vehicles but these lack the adaptability and ruggedness of a Land Rover. The 110, after all, will happily carry a stretcher, plus team members and all of their gear over the toughest terrain. Finding a vehicle to fill these boots is a problem. To learn more I travelled down to the Yorkshire Dales to speak to the Swaledale
Mountain Rescue Team.
I have been a visitor to this part of Yorkshire for many years and was aware of the local MRT, but the recent storms brought them more sharply into focus. For several days they appeared nightly on the evening news assisting the emergency services after flash-floods wreaked havoc. This prompted me to contact the team secretary to arrange a visit and find out more about their work. The trip would also give me a chance to get back to my Yorkshire roots and Swaledale is beautiful in its autumn colours. Approaching from the top beyond Kirby Stephen you are greeted by a classic Dales vista of stone barns, black-faced sheep and dry stone walls. This is still Land Rover country and there were plenty of working examples to be seen on the drive to the team’s base at Catterick.
On arrival, the troops were sorting out their gear after a training day and team veteran Graham Brown proceeded to walk me around the twin rescue 110 Utilities. These were purchased new almost ten years ago and have been heavily
modified for their role with the team. Built on heavy-duty chassis with beefed-up suspension they are fitted with ambulance-style removable seats in the rear. The biggest modification, however, is a folding bulkhead and floormounted rail system to allow the carriage of the Bell stretcher. In addition, there is plenty of room for all of the rescue and medical gear in the rear stowed in colour-coded bags and hard cases to make it easy to locate. Up top is a heavy-duty Hannibal roof rack and emergency lights with a rear-mounted ladder and step for access.
A recent incident involving the Keswick team has highlighted the need for extra rollover protection and a front roll-cage is now being considered. Both Defenders are also fitted for radio with a variety of systems in use. A new digital set-up, for example, is keyed to the emergency frequencies along with an older analogue system for backup. In addition, the team use handheld ‘ airwave’ radios, which rely on masts set up at strategic locations in the area to provide coverage. One of these masts, as I discovered, was positioned on the roof of my overnight digs at Keld that helps to cover a blackspot.
The Swaledale team had recently celebrated their 50th anniversary and have a wealth of experience of rescues of all kinds. Covering Swaledale and Wensleydale, their operational area includes the Pennine Way and Coast-to- Coast walk as well as numerous caves and historic lead mines. Incidents can range from a lost hill walker to a stuck caver with everything in between including animal rescues. Recently the team have been improving their skills working in and around water and not just because of the floods. It seems that certain stretches of the Swale offer white-water attractive to the more adventurous paddlers who can then find themselves getting into difficulty. Meanwhile, large-scale events such as the Tour de Yorkshire and mountain bike competitions place a premium on the team’s medical skills. They are also relied on by police and emergency services to help with searches and provide first aid assistance to hard-to-reach locations. It’s all in a days work for the team, which can also call on canine assistance in the shape of their two specially trained search dogs and handlers.
With everyone together for a group shot, I decided to raise the thorny subject of the new Defender, which got some typically blunt Yorkshire responses. The common view was that its air-suspension and advanced tech were an issue while they weren’t convinced it offered the same adaptability as the older model. These are concerns held by many, of course, and users such as MRTS are going to be hard to win over to the more sophisticated design of the successor. The cost of these new Land Rovers may also limit their appeal to rescue teams reliant on charity to fund new equipment. For the moment Graham says they are going to wait and see, planning to retain their Defenders for another five years to await developments. Meanwhile, they are keeping an eye on the INEOS Grenadier, which may be just the kind of back-tobasics 4x4 they are looking for. It seems sad that Land Rover appears to be leaving this market to others but just maybe the new Defender Utility will be the vehicle to answer their needs. After all, there is a lot of brand loyalty amongst those such as the mountain rescue fraternity who have relied on the Defender as a workhorse so many years.
“The common view with the new Defender was its air suspension and advanced tech were an issue and it didn’t have the same adaptability as the older model”