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Diary

Saturday 4th November 2006 18:30hrs – New Mills Bonfire

One of our biggest fund raising events of the year is the New Mills Community Bonfire. We are one of the adopted charities of the event and Darren, one of our deputy leaders, also happens to run professional firework displays. So he provides the display.

For the rest of us, it is an evening of bucket rattling and thank you’s to the people donating as they come in. As usual it is an excellent display, though the highlight of the evening had to be Colin and Sally’s mulled wine! Mmmm.

Monday 6th November 2006 19:30hrs – Casualty Care

The first Monday of the month is Casualty Care Training. The focus of system we use to assess casualties is “A, B, C” or Airway, Breathing, Circulation”. After we have assessed these we look at “D” and “E”. The last session was on Circulation, so tonight must be on “D” or “Disability”. This refers to the consciousness level of the casualty, so for us that generally involves head trauma and injuries to the neck or spine.

The session started with some practical exercises in moving casualties with head / neck injuries. This involved us either log rolling or lifting volunteer casualties into our Vacuum mattress and on to the stretcher. The key is to ensure that the casualty’s head stays in line with their body as they are moved. In this photo, I am unsure whether Bob is demonstrating how to support the Casualty’s head, or if Phil had upset him and he had him by the throat (that’s Trachea for our technical readers!).

Following the practical session, we went on to Steve's theory bit, where we discussed causes, symptoms and outcomes. We also discussed what course of action we would take, most of which seemed to include a helicopter and rapid evacuation. The session finally finished and we adjourned to the pub.

Sunday 12th November 2006 16:30hrs – Callout

Sunday afternoon and I am pottering around the house finishing off a few jobs. I had spent most of the weekend annoying my wife by saying that I needed to prepare a sandwich for the impending Callout we were due to have this weekend. The weather had taken a turn for the worse and a callout had looked likely, but so far nothing and it was almost the end of the weekend. Suddenly my phone started bleeping – Callout, and I never did get round to making that sandwich. I quickly got my gear together and made my flask and sandwiches. My plan for the evening of watching the re-run of “Lord of the Rings” would have to wait.

I arrived at the hut to a busy sight of people getting ready to go out, collecting team torches and getting their boots on. I signed on to the computer system. A note on the screen told me that a couple had reported themselves lost. They believed that their last know location was Pym Chair and they didn’t know which way they headed from there. Geoff had already set off with a team to go to Pym Chair and Mike was in the process of briefing his team. They had been tasked to go from Edale Cross to Red Brook and then across country to meet up at Pym chair. Nice!

I was soon put into a team with Ian as party leader along with Alison and Pete. We were tasked with going up Sandy Hays (the steepest route up to the Kinder Plateau) and then making our way to the downfall. If we didn’t find them, we would then have to wait there to be re-tasked.

We made our way to the Filter House, loaded up and set off for Sandy Hays. It was a clear night at the bottom, but I could see that the mist was down at the top of the hill. We soon hit the bottom of Sandy Hays and started to make our way up. It was hard work as we started to move up the steeper part of the route.

Just as the rocks at the top of Sandy Hays were starting to loom over us like the walls of Mordor, we heard a broken message on the radio. We caught the tail end of a grid reference, followed by what sounded like the fact that the lost walkers had been found. We waited where we were for further info. Soon Ian’s phone rang. It was Chrissie telling us to return to base.

While we were out, the people who had arrived at the hut after us had been waiting to go out on the search. As the walkers were found early they were no longer needed, so when we got back most of the team had gone. Not long after, Mike and Geoff’s team arrived back with the walkers. Mike’s team had been sounding their whistles on the top of the plateau and they soon saw a small torch flashing back at them. On investigation they found the walkers at Edale rocks.

Once everyone was down, Ian gave the pair of walkers a lift back to their car in Edale.

I headed home in time to catch the end of Lord of the Rings. In honour of this I have decided to entitle tonight’s outing “To Sandy Hays….and back again!”

Sunday 19th November 2006 09:00hrs – Rope Rescue Exercise

Sunday morning and I woke to fresh, clear skies. Pity I couldn't say the same about my head, after having friends round the previous evening. Although it looked as though it was going to be a beautiful day, the down side of a clear day in November is that it was going to be cold. I packed a couple of extra layers – just in case.

This is one of the mandatory training sessions of the year. If you miss two in a row, you are no longer allowed to take part in rescues involving rope work. So today, most of the team were out. This meant a lot of vehicles to get us and all our gear to the bottom of the hill. To save the track, we left all but the team land rovers at the bottom and headed up to Moorgate on foot. Today we are also having our annual team photo taken. Perhaps this could be another reason why there is a good turn out! We will put a copy of the photo on the website, once we have it.

We then packed up the gear and headed up to Kinder Low. It was a great day for photography, with stunning views. Like the one below!

From here we took the heavy gear straight up the steepest part of Kinder Low. Ryan is still keen enough to volunteer to carry the stretcher, but we now have a couple of other new probationers. Perhaps he will be able to find someone else to give it to soon. Especially after carrying it up this route.

We got to the top and settled down at the exercise site. An icy wind soon picked up, so I emptied my over-sized rucsac of almost all of my thermal layers. I take the “Michelin man” approach to standing around in the cold for hours.

The exercise was to practice lowering the stretcher on steep ground and then bringing it back up with the new raising system. While we were getting ourselves protected against the cold, Geoff, Chrissie and Neale went about choosing a section of the hill steep enough for the exercise.

Once the spot was chosen, we put the lower system in place. This consists of hammering five large aluminium stakes into the peat to act as belay anchors. We then tie a rope from each of these in a “big knot”.

Once this was in place, we attached the main package – a lowering rack, and the backup package – a radium release system attached to the line by prussic knots, to the stretcher.

A willing “volunteer” was the attached to the bottom of the stretcher as a “Barrow Boy” and they were launched over the edge.

Once down at the bottom, we locked the system off and changed over to the raising gear. This is made up of a one-way stopper and a block and tackle pulley system which allows us to haul the stretcher back up.

The whole process from start to finish takes about an hour and a half and needs about ten people. So as there were about thirty of us out there, we had to put it together and take it apart again three times. This meant a lot of waiting around for most of us. Clearly the excitement was too much for some of the team.

Tuesday 21st November 2006 19:15 hrs - Defib Assessment

Every year we have to be re-tested in our use of the defibrillator, to check that we know how to use it safely. Tonight about a dozen of us are having our annual assessment. It doesn’t take too long, so a string of people seem to come in, carry out their assessment and get back on with whatever they had planned for the evening. I am there early, so I go in first. The first assessment is to check that we are up to date with the latest CPR protocol. It has now changed to 30 chest compressions followed by 2 rescue breaths, so I run through the procedure. Ant goes next after me while I move on to the next assessment with Geoff.

Geoff is testing that we can use the Defib machine safely. The Defibrillator is designed to put a large electrical charge through a casualty’s heart when they are having a heart attack. This would hopefully restore the heart’s natural rhythm. The safety checks are to ensure that we don’t electrocute ourselves or anyone else close by when we “shock” the casualty. To carry out the assessment we have to practice sticking the pads on to our “Resusci-Annie”. You would think she would be better by now, after the number of times she has been “Defibed”!

Friday 24th November 2006 20:00hrs – Team Meeting

Team Meeting night tonight. We meet at the George for the usual round of discussions about the running of the team and all the details of what the various people in charge of “stuff” have been up to in the last month. Geoff reads out a message from the two people we helped off Kinder in the mist this month. They were very grateful for our skills in navigating through the clag!

As this is the last team meeting of this year, I try to see if anyone else is interested in writing the diary for next year….with no takers – surprisingly! Maybe I will get a few guest writers next year.

Afterwards in the pub, we must have had a lot of things to discuss, as I managed to miss my bus. An hour later, thanks to the wonders of Paramo, I managed to get home relatively dry!