SRT Operational Member Training.

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GregMay
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SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by GregMay »

I figure this may be of interest to some, I'll post as I go along through the process. I wasn't sure which forum section to put it in - Stu if you want to move to Trips and Adventures that's ok!

~

A long time ago I had a friend die after quite a long fall during a climbing trip. Several pairs all over a mountain crag in various places. Good social trip so far. Conor had topped out with his second, coiled ropes, and they were walking off to the ab point to get down. He slipped, fell about 150m, died. It was my first experience of a mountain rescue situation where we were an active part - rather than the all to common body recoveries due to suicides at our local crag. It was a few months after he died that I realised how much work SRT/MRTs put in and decided should I find myself settled in an area with one, I would work towards getting on it and helping.

As it conspired this took nearly 12 years - between university, PhD, jobs, city living - before I moved somewhere that I would be stationary in a mountain (ish) environment. I missed the application cutoff after moving to Hebden by a month in 2015. So I waited. When it opened again late in 2016 I applied and waited. And waited. And waited. I'd sort of assumed that I'd not made it past the most simple part - the application vetting process. A few weeks later a mail in my inbox inviting me to attend a meeting to discuss the SRT work, meet some team members, and ask questions. Lots of questions.

The first meeting was a bit of an eye opener for some of the others who attended. Mentions of body recovery and the volunteer aspect and lack of any financial support on your kit turned away half of those who turned up for the info night from the next stage. But if nothing else, it gave them a glimpse past the red and black kit and into what the SRT members actually do. We were then asked, should we want to try to get into an operational role, to turn up to RP90 with full hill kit for a day long assessment at a given date and time. No detailed kit list. No explanation of time length. No idea of what it would entail. Just you - hill kit - a climbing helmet - and a headtorch - at RP90. Questions returned smiles and the same things, hill kit/helmet/headtorch/RP90

ImageBridestones by Greg.May, on Flickr

12 out of the 26 people turned up for assessment. RP90 is the rescue post at Mytholmroyd.

Unsurprisingly it was raining, cold, and pretty typical of the month of February in Calderdale. Full kit was varied from a few of the runners with ultralight kit, to OTT mountain leader setups, and people who obviously had a lot of alpine experience. Out of the gate it was time for brews - get your own - then go upstairs and strip your kit out in front of everyone. A safety check of our kit on the SRT members side (two people didn't bring waterproofs). But a great chance for them to look at what be brought and how we packed it. This was followed by an operational member stripping out their bag for the day and being critiqued by other operational members. Everyone is an individual - bar the mandatory kit - and space for the fell party kit.

What followed was a fast ascent of a local trail (Daisy Bank) at full speed - fitness check part one. We were asked to orient ourselves, split into smaller groups of 2/3 and allocated an SRT member to work with. From then on we were tasked with navigational challenge after challenge. Long distance navigation legs on a bearing to micro features. Super micro feature navigating. Route choice off any form of paths. Extraction routes for proposed casualty situations. Scenario after scenario after scenario. Then, it got dark. At some point I ate a pie. And had a brew.

Another hour or so spent wandering around the moors working out how we coped without visual features. Which had been a fair chunk of the day already as we'd been in mist and snow for most of it. Then the radio chirped up. A walker had fallen and broken something or other, we were needed to help with a stretcher "evacuation". Get there as fast as you can. By fast, they meant fast and it was time to get as close to running as you can with a full days kit and 7hrs walking under your legs already. 200m vertical height later and we were up at Stoodly Pike Monument where a pre-stretcher bound 40kg dummy (known as Dead Fred) was strapped in and ready to be brought down the steep way.

A quick safety briefing, helmets on, and it was time to get the stretcher down. In answer to the age old question of "how many SRT members does it take to carry a stretcher?" - a minimum of 16. Eight to carry it, 6 to rotate in and give everyone a rest, one to navigate, one to give orders. Wall crossings were interesting. Think about that next time you crash hard and debate an MRT call out. A minimum of 16 people to carry you off. It took 30 minutes to descend 300m and cover about 1km. I was quite sore the next day. Lucky for us, we got to skip the 8km walk back to the base and we got to get in the rescue vehicles. Debrief (with a brew) and a chirpy - we will let you know tomorrow.

I didn't sleep well that night. Debating what choices I'd made. Did I fit in. Was I fit enough. 5pm the next day and an email comes through to the chosen ones. I couldn't have been happier. This was two weeks ago.

ImageDSC01717-Edit.jpg by Greg.May, on Flickr

Last night was my first night training of the next six months as a trainee. Met the other trainees, some of whom I met on the hill assessment, some I didn't. It was a relaxed night talking about refining what kit we had out on the hill down to what we are expected to carry at all training sessions, and on the hill, for each future session. There will be an outlay, not much, but something I'd factored into the post Divide monthly budget and put aside for it. We talked about the most basic form of the 5 party fell team - the minimum needed for operations and assessment of a casualty. We got to poke and probe the kit, try to figure out what a Little Dragon is, brews were drunk.

This is now my Tuesday for the next 6 months. After that, I go on a weekend assessment to make it to probationary team member status. If I pass that, I go on call, and keep training for the next 6 months before another weekend hill assessment to make full team member. To say I'm looking forward to this is an understatement. To say I'm nervous, almost terrified, is also fairly true.
Last edited by GregMay on Tue Feb 21, 2017 11:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Scud
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by Scud »

Good for you mate, hard work but ultimately rewarding and no doubt you'll learn a lot.

A random joke about "not much need for Mountain Rescue" where i live (north Norfolk) led me to search and actually find Norfolk Lowland search and rescue and an application to them, hoping that my diving experience may come in handy as a lot of work is looking for missing people and can involve the many dykes of the Fens and waterways of the Broads.

www.norlsar.org.uk/

It shows that wherever you are in the country there is a way of getting involved.
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Bearbonesnorm
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by Bearbonesnorm »

Well done Greg ... and I don't say that often.
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whitestone
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by whitestone »

Fair play to you.

I've helped out on stretcher carries, like you say, not easy and takes considerably more grunt and finesse (a live casualty makes considerable noise if you jolt them) than you might think
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GregMay
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by GregMay »

Bearbonesnorm wrote:Well done Greg ... and I don't say that often.
Two complements in as many weeks. I'm starting to think you're getting soft.

But thanks, it's been something I've wanted to do for a long time. Odd thing about where I learnt to climb was it became somewhat "normal" to go climbing on the rear wall (2/3 pitches) and expect that on one ledge you may find someone who'd jumped. Really sad whenever it happened. Similar to our kayaking club which had an old railway bridge across the river - brother in law came across a pre-jumper who was noosed and ready to go while out with his training partners. Similar, came across someone who'd jumped :/ I was stunned at how people who were applying for operation roles hadn't considered that they'd be involved in body recovery. More assumed they'd only be dealing with live subjects.

Either way, time to give something back.
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PeterC
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by PeterC »

Good on you, and all best wishes for the training programme, you will get a lot out of it. Still miss it and was very frustrated when subsequent moves ruled out involvement.
Peter, ex Skye and Dundonnel MRT's
Subsequent to your last post, fatalities are a very unpleasant part of the job, sometimes very hard to deal with, I'm sure the subject will be well covered in training.
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by Scud »

Greg, I wouldn't wear anything with your profile picture on if you come across anyone "pre-jump" or having any thoughts on jumping.............
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by GregMay »

Scud wrote:Greg, I wouldn't wear anything with your profile picture on if you come across anyone "pre-jump" or having any thoughts on jumping.............
:shock:
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by Scud »

Greg, I wouldn't wear anything with your profile picture on if you come across anyone "pre-jump" or having any thoughts on jumping............
As in the little Grim Reeper i meant!
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GregMay
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by GregMay »

Ahh... this is a good point :)

Oddly I don't always dress like that. Although my wife once won a dressage competition dressed as the grim reaper on her pony at a fancy dress one Halloween in pony club. There was much laughter.
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GregMay
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by GregMay »

PeterC wrote:Good on you, and all best wishes for the training programme, you will get a lot out of it. Still miss it and was very frustrated when subsequent moves ruled out involvement.
Peter, ex Skye and Dundonnel MRT's
Subsequent to your last post, fatalities are a very unpleasant part of the job, sometimes very hard to deal with, I'm sure the subject will be well covered in training.

Thanks Peter, I'm hoping if nothing else I learn a lot from it.
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by Bearbonesnorm »

Two complements in as many weeks. I'm starting to think you're getting soft.
Nope - Me, I'm all about credit where it's due and ridicule where it isn't.
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benp1
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by benp1 »

Congrats Greg

It's fairly significant investment in time so a proper commitment, great effort

If I lived in the right area I'd love to do something like this. Must be brutal in so many capacities yet rewarding in so many others

If everyone volunteered to do something in a 'giving' capacity, defined as broadly and openly as you like, we'd be in a much better place
Scud
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by Scud »

Benp1.

You can get involved, not all Search and Rescue volunteers are mountain based. South East London, Surrey etc teams

http://www.lowlandrescue.org/index.php/member-teams
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by ianfitz »

Nice one Greg. Glad that you are so driven to do this. Also glad that you are settled in a place that makes you feel like getting stuck into such a big commitment

Bearbonesnorm wrote: Nope - Me, I'm all about credit where it's due and ridicule where it isn't.
True that :grin:
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by Dr Nick »

That was a really interesting read Greg. Look foward to subsequent instalments.

Well done for volunteering, and for getting through. :-bd
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GregMay
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by GregMay »

Thanks all, didn't expect so much of a positive reply! I'll do a roundup each month and give an idea of what I've done and how it's going along.

Commitment wise, I think my brain has made a loop on what commitment is over the last few years, also what I want to commit myself to. Work not so much. Living and getting out there - yes. Mainly, getting myself embedded in a community that isn't something I already know. Time will tell.
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by Ian »

Good on you Greg. A tough commitment, but one that I'm hope will be very rewarding.
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by slarge »

Well done Greg, hadn't really considered the amount of training these volunteers undergo prior to becoming operational, but that's a real commitment that should be very rewarding. Hopefully not the grim reaper any more!
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by Muddy Legs »

Nice one Greg. Having been involved for 15+ years I'm certain you'll enjoy the training which never stops. I've been out of the MR scene for three years now having moved to Berkshire and miss that constant training and practice. Although I still keep my First Aid updated to validate NGB awards I certainly don't feel as skilled or confident as I was when I was a MR Cas Carer and practising/training once a month plus real life practice as well

However
I realised how much work SRT/MRTs put in
...only became apparent to me when I stopped!!

Good luck mate -- keep the thread updated.
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by Mbnut »

Good man, I look forward to reading the monthly updates.

A general nod to all that help others, whether a pretty full on role like Greg has taken on or just the simple act of helping out a fellow trail user in a bind.
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by GregMay »

One month done. Update time. Words, no pictures this time!

It's been an interesting introduction to say the least. Getting to meet the members of the team in dribs and drabs has been a good way to start to phase in to what is a group with a family feel about it. A family with some definite heads of the family none the less! A lot of people to meet, oldest member is in his late 70s, who is the current team president.

I've had a slow introduction to operational activities over the first two weeks of training. We spent the first session working through the basic roles of how the team operates on the fell. The structure of the 5 person fell party made sense on paper, but it wasn't until a few weeks later on the hill that I really understood why they operate this way. Operational roles divvied out so that people have a job to do at the time, and everyone else supports that role. However, everyone should be able to, eventually, slot into one of those roles. Albeit cas. carer a bit of a speciality within the party.

The second training session was at our local ambulance station - where we also store some kit and a vehicle - working with all the stretchers that the team use. Stripping them down, building them up, using the wheels additions where appropriate, looking at the haul setup for heli use. On and on it went. A long night looking through three Bell stretchers (two versions), an Alpine MR, a MacInnes...we didn't get onto the other two that the team use - a scoop and some sort of vacuum system. We've a whole day planned just around stretcher use down the line. Each one has its own foibles and uses. Each one has its members who praise it, and curse it.
I was quite surprised at how fast I got my head around the assembly and strip of the systems - probably years of working with bikes and my hands giving me a bit of an advantage in assembling quite simple logical systems. Also, the buggers are hard to carry, even with 8 people, add a "normal" 85kg casualty onto it and it gets tiring very fast. Oddly I'm hoping we'd get some snow at some point to practice some sledging. I have mental images of Calvin and Hobbes in my head.

Third night of the month is always maintenance. I didn't really know what to expect when I turned up. We'd be told to turn up, ask questions, get stuck in. We were effectively on our own to seek out people to help and to socialise ourselves into usefulness. I'm not the best at this, I tend to be quite relaxed around people in groups when talking to or at them, but individual one on one with a large amount of people watching that I do things (And correctly)...not my forte. I start to doubt what I am doing and stutter. Turns out, I'm not the only one and established members told me stories of their first time at maintenance and how it would get easier.

The night involved emptying the four operational vehicles - at once - and replacing and checking anything that had been used or was out of date. Suffice to say, a call-out at this time would have been quite...ineffective, so I'd not suggest getting into bother the third Tuesday of a month around Calderdale between about 1930 and 2030. The team were pretty drilled at what they were doing, with nearly all members on site it was a short down time when kit was being pulled out and replaced. We as trainees probably slowed the process down from what it normally is, so I'll be interested to see if I can be of a bit more use the next time this comes around. At least now I know where things go in the vehicle I'm mostly likely to be in! An early night for us after a full team debrief (prayers) of what was planned over the next few weeks an option for all members to voice concerns or ideas in a very open forum. The opinions that I'd heard from others of cliques and iron fist governance being the norm within SRTs appears to be nonsense. Or at least within this team.

Fourth session of the month is the business meeting for the team - someone has to run it - and was avoided for us as we spent the night on the fells with 6 lucky operational members who got to get assigned to us. Typical late February weather - rain, wind, fog and the remnants of snowmelt on the ground. Gather at the post, bundled into vehicles, up to Blackstone Edge for the evening. Tonight was going to be our first scenario. The fell party rolls were given to operational team members. Tonight we were the extras in the team.
Simple scenario - walker had fallen, hurt their leg and we needed to get them off the fell. When we arrived a member of the team had already gone in fast to find the casualty and made an initial assessment. Lower leg fracture, definite stretcher carryout, Entonox, splint, meds, full FP kit. They gave a GR and a route in to the cas. was plotted by the navigator. Kit was split between members and we started to move out into the darkness. Took about 20 minutes to get in to where they were with the team member having set up a strobe to signal us for the final few hundred meters - thick fog made visibility difficult, but did mean that a strobe lit up the fog in a welcome dome of light. Onsite assessments were done, stretcher assembled, cas. bag and padding arranged, cas. moved onto stretcher, prepared and ready to carry off.
The plan was to carry off in one - no stops - with only 3 spare members to rotate onto the stretcher for rest periods. It was going to be about a 2km carry, across heavily tussocked ground, with a degrading footpath and a large possibility of falling into a drainage ditch. Pretty normal terrain for the area! Add in two bridges and one gate cross that had to be navigated as well as a final very steep ascent to the car park. I had the pleasure (??) of being on the head end when we had to carry the stretcher between two of us for an extended period due to a bridge with railings on both sides that resulted in us only being able to get the stretcher through. My arms are now about an inch longer.

So one month in and I've definitely learned a lot. Some of my previous skills have probably carried me this far with a bit of coasting, but other things are totally new to me and I will have to do some reading up on it. During this time the team have had 7 call outs - none on our training night, so I've yet to attend one. It's only a matter of time really! We've lost one trainee member. I've so far managed to trash one jacket and a bag - both were old kit in need of replacing anyway, so it's not much of a worry. I've spent some money on other pieces of kit I've not had since my ML days (kissu etc.) and am looking forward to getting out training again.

Onwards.
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by whitestone »

Interesting Greg.

What you see on the fells/at incidents is the usual "tip of the iceberg" in regards to what's actually required. Then again you don't want to be turning up at an incident having to read the instruction manual for a bit of kit: "Congratulations on your purchase of the Acme Co. Roadrunner stretcher" :roll:
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GregMay
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by GregMay »

whitestone wrote:Interesting Greg.

What you see on the fells/at incidents is the usual "tip of the iceberg" in regards to what's actually required. Then again you don't want to be turning up at an incident having to read the instruction manual for a bit of kit: "Congratulations on your purchase of the Acme Co. Roadrunner stretcher" :roll:
Agree - I had a bit of a double take when I realised how much kit was in one of our vehicles, let alone all 4! Taking them apart to learn what was where and what did what did help a lot. As for on hill kit, with this being a basic scenario, I am quite amused about how much kit we have to carry in to a site compared to what I normally take out onto the fells. Which if running, is me + clothes + keys if I'm local.
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Re: SRT Operational Member Training.

Post by benp1 »

Interesting, thanks for sharing.

What is volunteer turnover like? Will you joining bolster numbers or are they looking to replace people that have left? Is there an optimum number of people? I'm guessing a balance of enough people to be able to attend all incidents and few enough that people get exposure and 'on the job' training to build experience

Are they aware/happy you are sharing info on this online? There's nothing bad in there clearly!
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