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Diary

Ever wondered what's really involved in being a team member? For 2005, I will be keeping an informal diary here which I hope will give a flavour of what we do. The views expressed are my own, not those of the Kinder Mountain Rescue Team.

Fri 4th March

We have a special meeting tonight to approve making the team a limited company. With the prospect of the Gateway to Kinder project needing members of the exec to sign contracts on behalf of the team for hundreds of thousands of pounds, we need to make sure that they are not personally liable, should anything go wrong. It turns out that this is a fairly standard procedure, with teams from the Peak District and elsewhere already have done this. Once we've done this, we'll re-apply for our charity status.

We have a fairly short meeting, mainly involving i dotting and t crossing. A unanimous vote in favour and, yet again, we're in the pub.

Mon 7th March

First Monday of the month, so it's first aid again. Tonight we go through bone fractures: their signs and symptoms, treatment, pain relief and evacuation. We start of with a mini lecture, where Steve displays his artistic talent with some interesting anatomical sketches.

We finish off running through scenarios. In teams of four, each of us has a piece of paper with a particular scenario e.g. broken ankle, broken kneck of femur. One person acts as first aider and one as first aid scribe. They determine the injury using our standard primary and secondary survey approach. We then swap round, so everyone has a go at every role.

Wed 16th March

Rescue training tonight covers search techniques. We go through the various different search patterns that we use including night search techniques in preparartion for this Saturday's night exercise. Chrissie has now learnt how to include photos in a powerpoint presentation, so I feel transported back to family slide shows, with much discussion of "who's that second from the left"...

By way of a change, we go to the Royal, rather than the George this evening, where Mike leads a discussion on the history of the cagoule (you really had to be there!).

Sat 19th March

I'm just watching the second half of the Welsh rugby victory over Ireland when my phone goes off. It's the night exercise, started by callout. This way, we all practice the callout procedure as well as the operations on the hill. I phone Geoff to see if a landrover needs picking up, but they're both sorted. I get changed, sort a flask out and drive to the base. I meet Jane there, but as she doesn't have a key yet, I open up and get the radios out. I pick up a radio and a miner's lamp and put them on my rucksac.

The rest of the team gradually arrive, many having missed their tea by making the rash assumption that the callout for the night exercise would be after dark, not at 17.00! Other tea-missing assumptions revolved around Manchester City playing at home, Dave, the exercise organiser, being a season ticket holder, therefore the earliest callout time would be......

We have to locate a diabetic who has not returned from his walk along the edge path. I'm in Phil's hill party, along with Mike and Paul. As Paul is about to do his radio training, he's put on the radio to get a bit of 'on the job' training. Mike takes first aid and I navigate. Paul drives us in the landrover up to Edale Cross.

Our initial search pattern is to walk from Edale Cross, along the edge path to Kinder Downfall. Conveniently, as well as being dark, it's now misty with visibility of 20-40 metres. With a bit of messing about and a lot of GPS, we arrive at the Downfall, meeting up with Kinder 3, who've arrived via Sandy Heys. Not surprisingly, the casualty has not been found so far.

We radio in and are allocated a route from the downfall, cross country to Fairbrook Naize and then west along the Northern Edges. This is a tricky route for a misty night and causes much amusement in the Kinder 3 team, until they discover that they are to walk the old pennine way - a difficult, boggy, hard to navigate route that delivers you on the Southern Edge path miles from Hayfield. Suddenly, Kinder 3 think that our route looks rather attractive.

We all set off along the Kinder river. After Kinder Gates, we are just about to go cross country when we hear a shout further down the river. We've located the casualty. Here he is, looking remarkably perky for a diabetic, lost at night half-way up the Kinder River (and without a paddle!):

Alan, from Kinder 3, goes in to do his first aid bit. It turns out that the casualty has just been benighted and is happy to walk off the hill. We're all happy to have avoided a night-time stretcher carry and troop off down Sandy Heys. Here we are navigating off the hill:

Everyone gets back to base by around 23.30. We have a quick debrief and then return home. It was certainly different to last years 16 hour epic, from 21.00 on the Friday night until 13.00 on the Saturday, including a real casualty.

Wed 23rd March

Pete and I help out at the basic training tonight by going out with the probationers whilst they go through the radio routines. I go with Paul and we walk (in the dark again) over Lantern Pike, Matley Moor and back into Hayfield. Paul is put through his paces by navigating to grid references given over the radio and having to do a bit of phonetic spelling of our names. It's all very relaxed and we get back just in time for last orders.

Wed 30th March

A theme seems to be developing around sports events and callouts. It's 21.00 and I'm watching England's second World Cup qualifying match (England leading 1-0, half-way through the second half), when my phone goes off. It's like a well oiled machine - kettle on, get changed, phone Chrissie to check about the landrover, make flask and drive to the hut. Around 15 minutes from call to arrival at the hut.

There are four teenage lads doing their Duke of Edinburgh missing on Kinder. I'm with Chrissie and am assigned radio duty. Two parties squeeze into the landrover and we set off up the Edale Cross track. Kinder 2 gets dropped off at Moorgate to walk up the three knolls path. We stay on board and go all the way to Edale Cross. It's freezing cold, windy, rainy, misty and dark - we're all delighted to be out!

There are six in our party and we split into two threes. Chrissie, Pete and I go round Swines Back, whilst Mick, Chris and John check out Edale Rocks. We use whistles and lights at regular intervals, but get no response. We all meet up at the Kinder Low trig point. I radio in our position and, not surprisingly, we're sent off to the downfall. I hear on the radio that there are also 5 Buxton hill parties and 4 search dogs out, as well as the 5 Kinder parties.

We shuffle off through the mist, initially towards Red Brook. After a bit of messing about, we locate the edge path. It's surprsingly tricky to navigate in these conditions and Chris uses his GPS to send us off in the right direction.

After a lot of whistle stops, we hear six blasts in reply and quickly find the casualties in a tent, ironically pitched on the edge path. Pete is first aid and he is relieved to find that all that's needed are warm drinks, chocolate and some dry clothing. After some encouragement from Pete, the lads agree to walk off the hill. Good news - stretcher carries in these conditions are the stuff of nightmares. I radio base to fill them in and they recall all the hill parties. Kinder 2 are directed to us to help carry the lads' gear down.

After 30 minutes warming up, we set off walking back to Edale Cross. The lads have an amazing amount of gear that we carry off for them. Their rucksacs are heavier than ours! We arrive at Edale Cross, load everyone and everything in to the landrovers and return to base.

I get home at 03.00 on Thursday morning. I grab a cup of tea and wonder what's on TV at this time of night. Ironically, I find it's a re-run of the England match, so I catch the remainder of the second half before going to bed.

Thurs 31st March

It's 17.00 and I'm just grappling with a neighbour's car, which is stuck on the track at the back of the house when Chrissie rings. Am I available? I make my apologies to the neighbour, leave their car and head off to the hut.

This is a limited call of just 6 of us from the Hayfield area. In a slightly bizarre situation, a young couple are standing by a signpost and are lost! They describe the sign to our Team Leader, Geoff, over their mobile. It's clear that they are at the cross paths at the top of William Clough/Mill Hill. Geoff tells them to stay put and Geoff, Chris and I walk up from the Monk's road over Mill Hill to pick them up. They are relieved to see us and are generally OK. They have been wandering around over Kinder in the mist since mid-morning, so are weary and nervous about following a path when they don't know where it goes. We retrace our steps back to the Monk's Road with the couple, jump in the landrover and head back to base. I rustle up a cup of tea and some chocolate biscuits - all part of the service!

We point out (mildly!) that a map and a compass are a good idea when out for a walk. John delivers the couple to Chinley railway station so that they can get a train back to Sheffield.

We all go back home for tea. I make a couple of phone calls to cancel my evening dog walking club (it's not as serious as it sounds - the pub features rather heavily!).

As there seem to be a number of diary 'groupies' in the team, I feel obliged to update the March entry before packing in for the day - Chrissie: enjoy.