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Our latest news
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An experienced climber was soloing Window Gully on Great End and had almost completed the climb when he triggered an avalanche.
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TWO RESCUE MISSIONS IN TWO HOURS
TWO mountain rescue missions were launched in less than two hours over the weekend.
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Rescuers post record of major Peak District incident
A Peak District rescue team has turned the camera on its activities for an account of a major incident this weekend.
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Six-hour rescue as Lakeland mountain walkers get lost
Five walkers were rescued from England’s third highest mountain after getting lost in the dark.
MR in the news
BBC News and Sport Search: mountain rescue
A walker is airlifted to hospital with multiple injuries after falling 50ft down a cliff in the Peak District.
A pensioner who went missing from sheltered accommodation in Caithness is found dead on a beach.
A fire officer tells an inquiry into the death of a woman who fell down a mine shaft in Ayrshire that the rescue was a "success".
Police officers based at a nuclear site are among 60 people looking for a missing 65-year-old man.
An MSP says rules which may have stopped rescue workers pulling a women from a mine shaft must be reviewed.
Police are co-ordinating what they have described as one of their biggest search operations for a missing person.
Renewed warnings are issued after a climber survives an avalanche in the Lake District.
An inquiry into the death of an Ayrshire woman who fell down a mine shaft is told it collapsed just hours before the tragedy.
A fatal accident inquiry into the death of an Ayrshire lawyer who fell down a mine shaft hears of delays during the rescue effort.
The names of two climbers who were swept away by an avalanche in the Highlands are released by police.
Police identify a woman who died after her 4x4 was swept down a swollen river on the North York Moors as she tried to negotiate a ford.
Two skiers are airlifted to safety after being caught in an avalanche in the Cam Ghleann area of Glencoe.
Police divers find a woman's body near a car which was swept away in flood waters on the North York Moors.
An underwater police team conducts a search of the River Wear after a 30-year-old woman goes missing.
Two climbers swept away by an avalanche in the Glencoe area of the Highlands have died, police confirm.
The families of two Teesside men injured in an avalanche on a Lake District fell have thanked their rescuers.
A walker is being treated in hospital after he was seriously injured in a fall while on the north face of Ben Nevis.
Rescuers say two men were "very lucky" to survive after an avalanche swept them 750ft (228m) down a fell in the Lake District.
Two climbers are swept 750ft (228m) down a fell after triggering an avalanche in the Lake District.
A walker who became lost on Snowdon is airlifted to safety in poor weather conditions.
From BBC News
Equipment
Equipment
Mountaineering equipment today is a world away from the hemp ropes and hobnail boots of the early pioneers. So too is the equipment available to mountain rescue teams and their individual members. Vacuum splints and specially designed stretchers have long since replaced the need for the makeshift use of whatever came to hand. Advances in medical technology, and the dedication of a variety of indiviuals, has resulted in a range of specialist equipment for use in the demanding operational rescue environment.
All the medical equipment used is useful, portable and simple to use in most environments. Bearing in mind that even a four wheel drive rescue team vehicle – or a hovering helicopter – may not be able to directly access a casualty, a major consideration is that team members are required to carry all the necessary equipment to the casualty site on their backs! Any equipment must not only be strong, durable and reliable, able to withstand robust use in rough terrain, whatever the weather conditions, but must also be simple and easy to use – in blizzard or wind, sunshine or pitch dark.
So, for example, the classic Bell stretcher – the mainstay for teams in England and Wales for over thirty five years – is specifically designed for mountain use, splitting into two halves, each one portable by a single team member. The pieces are then assembled at the point of need.
Individual teams use a variety of lightweight casbags in which to wrap the casualty, the aim to warm and preserve body heat. The one recommended – and which we provide to teams – is a standard mountain rescue casbag, made to our specifications by Aiguille Alpine Equipment.
The vacuum mattress provides total and effective spinal immobilisation, making the casualty more comfortable – and less likely to develop pressure points – whilst encouraging and maintaining good circulation.
The vacmat starts out as a flat, airtight 'bean bag', in which a casualty is wrapped. Once secure, the air is pumped out of the bag, producing a semi-rigid cocoon in the shape of the casualty. It is by no means a substitute for a stretcher but does enable team members to move a casualty over short distances to a normal stretcher, without worsening his injuries.
And, once the casualty reaches hospital, it can be left in place for X-rays, reducing the amount of movement between procedures as the injuries are assessed.
Work is currently underway to develop a new stretcher, fit for mountain use, now that Bell stretchers are no longer in production. But research and development continues with all specific mountain rescue equipment, to improve and refine, or develop new, essential items of rescue equipment.