Peak time for rescue teamsSummer is the busiest season for the volunteers who save those stranded in the mountains. Tony Durrant reportsIn action: mountain rescuers in the Lake District | ||||||
And they’re off, like cattle heading for | 40 | service1) for hikers, and RAF helicopters are a | ||||
their summer pastures. The nation’s | taxpayers’ right. | |||||
army of fair-weather ramblers, | Mark Hodgson, the Keswick team leader, | |||||
scramblers and danglers is dusting off | highlights a particular mobile-phone incident as | |||||
5 | their hiking boots, unknotting ropes, packing | probably the most unnecessary call-out of the | ||||
sandwiches and heading for the hills. | 45 | year. It came from a female walker. “She had all | ||||
Which is why that tough band of volunteers | the right equipment and a mobile phone,” says | |||||
for the country’s mountain-rescue teams are | Mark. “Having lost contact with the rest of her | |||||
busiest when the weather is at its best. That’s | group she sat down, dialled 999 and waited to be | |||||
10 | right - emergency call-outs do not peak in the | shepherded from the mountain. This we did, only | ||||
bleak midwinter. No, the ‘silly season’ for the | 50 | to find that the rest of her group were drinking in | ||||
rescue teams is June to September. | a pub, totally unconcerned.” | |||||
The Keswick Mountain Rescue | The nature of mobile phones also | |||||
Team was called out 67 times last | causes confusion. A bewildered | |||||
15 | year - 14 times, for example, in | walker in Snowdonia used his to call | ||||
September. Six of those calls were on | 55 | for help and was put through to a | ||||
one day and included a girl of 10 | mountain-rescue controller who had | |||||
with a sprained ankle; two | never heard of the peak the walker | |||||
paragliders falling down a cliff at | claimed he was lost on. “I’m in | |||||
20 | take off; a woman with a locked knee | Snowdonia,” came the panicked | ||||
and a search for a suicidal person, | 60 | voice over the airwaves. “That may | ||||
later found in Wigan. | be, sir,” replied the controller, “but | |||||
On the night of July 13, the team had to | I’m in Dublin,” which was the site of | |||||
organise a full-scale search using an RAF | the nearest phone mast to pick up the | |||||
25 | helicopter, search dogs and 16 volunteers to | signal. | ||||
locate a 29-year-old woman who had set out to | 65 | However, the message for mobile users is: | ||||
cross one of the highest mountains in Wales. She | take it with you if you go into the hills. In the | |||||
had no equipment and was wearing a light shell | right hands, mobile phones are very [id:27285]. They | |||||
suit and training shoes. She was found unharmed | save vital time in an emergency. | |||||
30 | and put on the next train to Wigan. The following | Despite the complaints about mountain | ||||
day, six members of the team struggled up the | 70 | madness, our rescue teams are quick to point out | ||||
west face of 3,000ft-high Tryfan to rescue a pet | they are all volunteers who do their job because | |||||
dog stuck in a hole. And together with the dogs, | they love the mountains. So they won’t charge | |||||
wanderers from Wigan and shell suit hikers come | you or chew your head off for calling them out in | |||||
35 | the growing numbers of mobile-phoners. With | an emergency, day or night, 365 days a year. | ||||
their map and compass at the bottom of their | 75 | As Hodgson advises: “People should do their | ||||
rucksacks, or back in the car boot next to their | thing in the mountains. They are there for | |||||
common sense, they reach for their trusty Nokia, | everybody.” Even if you’re from Wigan. | |||||
assuming rescue teams are a kind of free AA |