SRT Operational Member Training.

[GregMay]

Thanks Tom, I am starting to feel more useful, which is great. It is good to be on call too, I can get out and make a difference now.

I think we had more incidents than normal years yes. Weather was quite poor which was a factor, but if you look at the ratio of injuries to people it's less than 0.005 injuries per person, so quite low. There have been deaths over the years, during the early years when they peaked up to 65,000 people supposedly. Age profile of injuries were interesting, Irish news reporting age of most casualties was in their 70s - like most members of the RC church, it's an ageing population.

Barefoot, I probably saw 20 or 30 people? One of whom was a nun. I'm sure there were more, but definitely less than 1% of the people out there. Why... I have no idea, looks bloody painful

[GregMay]

August Update:

Incidents 12 , Attended 7.

Went on call at 10pm one evening, had first callout at 2:30am that morning. We then had a call out every other day for 12 days. Busy to say the least.

Mixture of ambulance assists, hill jobs, and searches. A really busy month - sadly missed 3 call outs as I was on holidays in the Lakes for 9 days. Call outs went off twice in the middle of fell races which led to some interesting chats with people along the way!

Training proceeded as normal with some crag and comms work. Next month we start CasCare training, lots of medical work for the next few months.

Onwards!

[GregMay]

September Update:

Incidents 6 , Attended 1.

Quieter month, most call outs on a Sunday oddly, I was away racing for many of them.

Getting much more used to looking outside at weather and deciding what kit to have ready, where it needs to be in relation to me while out wandering with family, and what sort of response times I can handle.

So far 12mins from a shout to in team vehicle leaving post under blue lights is the fastest I've done.

Cas Care training underway, out with the SARDA team training a bit, and attending more charity events for the team.

Actually feel like I've a use too!

[GregMay]

October Update:

Incidents 9 , Attended 2.

Busy month for the team, quite a few call outs for the dog handlers, not so many stand up stand downs as we've been getting.

Winter definitely fell quite quick, one call out for flooding response team already. A lot of time we're in the dark now.

Team training for CasCare exam all month, while we're joining in as probies we won't get to be examined until March. Fair enough as we can get more experience in before then!

November so far, has been interesting.

Greg

[middleagedmadness]

Have the up most respect for you guys and the air ambulance , I always thought I'd never need either but always dropped a few quid into the collections ,then one Sunday morning I took a bad lead fall at the roaches 40ft onto my head ( good job I'm built like a sumo) rope caught and spun me around shattering my tib and fib , if it wasn't for you guys and a bunch of over enthusiastic scouts I'd have been stuck on the route a lot longer and had more chance of infection as it was a open fracture leading to amputation ,(nearly happened 6months later anyway) , so it's a massive thanks to people like you

[GregMay]

It's why we do it.

Hell, I still put money in tins whenever I'm in another teams area. Never know when you'll need to use us, or if I'll need to use them.

Up and down days, but still, it's worth it so far.

[GregMay]

November Update:

Incidents 4 , Attended 3 (2 CVSRT, 1 RPMRT).

Quiet month, three of our incidents happened on the same day of which I made it along to two. One involving blue lights and a helicopter evacuation, the other running as it was very local and a not so happy ending.

Weather turning inevitably means we've less people out on the hills. But it does mean we're now carrying more kit for ourselves and others. Snow chains in the vehicles, snow shovels, more kit being added to deal with the possible snow and access issues it brings.

Going to spend some time this weekend looking at my call out kit and putting some warmer layers in.

Ended up first on scene for a RPMRT job by accident at a local fell race when a runner had... difficulties. Actually felt useful too.

Rest of the team sat there CasCare exam - we've to wait until we're full members in January before we can.

Now down to 4 Probies from the original 8, a shame, but we've hopefully lost the last one of us - and he may go to a Lakeland team if things work out well.

[danielgroves]

Once again keep up the amazing work Greg, and thanks for doing the write-ups. Really enjoy reading these reports.

[Borderer]

Yes, I really enjoy reading them too. Sorry that I don't always post that though! Keep em coming. Cheers.

[GregMay]

No issue folks, I'll keep updating.

Icy weekend ahead, suspect we'll be out picking people up - running crampons are now in the bag!

[GregMay]

December Update:

Incidents 6 , Attended 2.

A quiet month, which was surprising given the weather. Team was stood up to provide 24 hour cover for Yorkshire Ambulance Service twice during the snowy periods and did a few more jobs during that time that are not clocked as team jobs. Usual time of year for people to get out and get into trouble, but it appears that snow during the holiday season means that people stay at home, which was good for everyone really.

Big day out in Halifax shaking buckets with the team, while the other half were in Keightly, saw us get a lot of very generous donations from the public. All going towards the running costs of the team. It was a good chance to chat with people who were interested, although most of them wanted to play with the search dogs! Flipping cold day though, but worth it.

December had us as a team step back off training for a few weeks with some social walks and the team dinner, which Holme Valley provided cover so we could all go out. Good now to feel like I'm able to chat with any of the team members in a social context, the other benefit of being part of the group.

Two weeks now until my final assessment, nice to have people already starting to try to wind us up! We've no idea where it is only that it'll be a 36 hour period and we've to bring full winter bivi kit. I am quite looking forward to it, and hopefully all the work I've put in over the past year and a bit will pay off.

Our new recruits should all have their applications in by now, they'll be hearing back about the first info night, then hopefully we'll get to help them on the hill during their intake assessment, and throughout the year.

Final Year Stats for team:
Call outs: 75.
Applied training sessions: 98.
Public events and talks: 171.
Total of 14,289 operational hour across all team members.

So far into 2018 we've already had one job, and I'm on a 100% response rate....doubt it'll last for long though :)

[sean_iow]

I enjoy reading these updates keep up the good work.

Final Year Stats for team:
Call outs: 75.
Applied training sessions: 98.
Public events and talks: 171.
Total of 14,289 operational hour across all team members.

Those stats are an eye opener I always put a few quid in the collection pot when I see one when I'm in wales/lakes as I was aware of the the financial issues for the teams and I always knew the members put a lot in but the hours above put in by your team members really shows what a commitment being a team member is! And your's is just one of many teams. The total hours across the uk must be staggering.

[GregMay]

Very much so Sean, a lot of time that's not even clocked on that. Time spent organising sessions, doing paperwork, the boring side of it.

[danielgroves]

How many team members have you got Greg?

A massive well done and thank you once again, both for the work you're doing and maintaining this thread

[GregMay]

No issues Dan, happy to be of interest.

Operational, we have 55 team members - 4 of us are probies now. New intake has been advertised for, their intake day is sometime in early Feb.

[danielgroves]

Average of 259.8 hours each per year, 10.825 non-stop days per year. That goes up more if you consider that a some would have start part way through the year.

Really impressive commitment

[voodoo_simon]

Average of 259.8 hours each per year, 10.825 non-stop days per year. That goes up more if you consider that a some would have start part way through the year.

Really impressive commitment

The 260 hours/member will collerate to a lot of people’s total riding time in a year I would imagine That’s great commitment

One thing that ‘erks’ me is the fundraising side of it, I think it’s a shame that there isn’t a central fund to donate to, rather than to each team if that makes sense?

Brilliant thread Greg

[GregMay]

voodoo_simon - you can donate to MREW directly here: https://www.mountain.rescue.org.uk/how- ... -donations

You've always been able to, but most people tend to donate to the team they are closest to, or who's patch they spend the most time in.

Also, irk not erk - unless you're talking about a very junior RAF member :)

[whitestone]

I'd guess that Calderdale is one of the smaller/quieter teams so the figures for teams like Ambleside, Ogwen, Llanberis, Glencoe will be even higher. At a further guess searches would likely be more hours per call out since with an accident you already know the location.

260 hours is over six working weeks of standard office hours.

Respect

[GregMay]

I'd guess that Calderdale is one of the smaller/quieter teams so the figures for teams like Ambleside, Ogwen, Llanberis, Glencoe will be even higher.

Last time I checked were in the top 10 teams in the country for callouts. Over the summer, we were third busiest at one stage. I think in a 14 day period we had 9 jobs IIRC, and we've had up to three on the go at once.

[Cheeky Monkey]

voodoo_simon - you can donate to MREW directly here: https://www.mountain.rescue.org.uk/how- ... -donations

You've always been able to, but most people tend to donate to the team they are closest to, or who's patch they spend the most time in.

Thanks for that, really useful to know

[GregMay]

Any pennies, even at national level, helps us.

[voodoo_simon]

voodoo_simon - you can donate to MREW directly here: https://www.mountain.rescue.org.uk/how- ... -donations

You've always been able to, but most people tend to donate to the team they are closest to, or who's patch they spend the most time in.

Also, irk not erk - unless you're talking about a very junior RAF member :)

Cheers Greg, didn't know that

and as for the typo, did it erk you?

[GregMay]

No issues.

And yes, it irked me.

[RayKickButts]

No issues.

And yes, it irked me.

Hi Greg, only just clocked your post, i went onto the call out list in November last year, i'm now a member of Western Beacons Mountain Search and Rescue. I've been pretty lucky as well as i've been put on three courses, i'm SRT lvl 2 doing lvl 3 in March, I'm now a qualified 4X4 driver for the team and also attended the Search course in North Wales last August, which i can highly recommend.

We are getting about 6 calls a month on our patch and also lots of Area calls, not sure if your aware but Central MRT lost their base and vehicles in a fire so we are called to bring kit and team members to calls as needed.

We've just done our monthly training weekend in the Black Mountain, snow and ice up on the high points and Vis down to about 15-20m, and very cold at the high point in Fan Hir it was -2

Pic from Saturday morning after a search exercise and before we were tasked out on another search, those that know me will see me... i'm the grumpy looking one cus the debrief wasn't in the pub across the road