Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Diary - october 2007

Monday 1st October 2007 19:30hrs – Casualty Care Theory Exam

In order to carry out any medical procedures in Mountain Rescue you need to hold a Casualty Care certificate, which must be renewed every three years. Several of us need to renew our certificates before they expire. The exam is split into a theory test and a practical assessment. Tonight is the theory test. Two hundred questions on everything from broken legs to bizarre medical conditions. Most of the questions are written to try and trip you up, so you have to read them carefully. We all finally get them answered and passed to Colin to take them home for marking. There is a 70% pass mark, so I am a little nervous.

22:30 hrs – Colin calls to let me know I’ve passed. The good news is I can sleep tonight without worrying about my results. The bad news is I had decided to go to bed early and woke up thinking it was a callout!

Tuesday 2nd October 2007 19:30hrs – Casualty Care Training

Doctor Ian is running tonight’s session and as we have worked our way through A, B and C, tonight is on D for Disability. This translates to head and spine injuries, which present themselves as a lowering of consciousness and movement throughout the body. It is a very technical session as Ian explains the details of what happens inside brain when it is involved a serious trauma. These sessions take a lot of concentration, but it is very useful to understand what is going on internally when we see physical symptoms.

Sunday 7th October 2007 09:00 hrs – Casualty Care Exam

As I mentioned last week, there are a few of us who need to renew our Casualty Care medical certificates. These are re-taken every three years and are made up of a theory and a practical exam. The theory was last week, which we all passed, so today we find ourselves waiting in Buxton Team’s car park on a not too unpleasant Sunday morning. There was a little confusion between the time we thought we needed to be there and the time the doctors running the exam thought it was starting, but when you’ve been in Mountain Rescue for a while, you become quite proficient at standing around.

Finally the exam began. Once we had got past the important item of tea and coffee, we were summoned individually to carry out our scenarios. We each had to face two scenarios, one medical and one trauma. Someone would go in, we waited, then eventually they would come out. No-one seemed to be smiling when they returned, but some appeared to have had a harder time than others. Eventually I was called for my Trauma scenario. I had to deal with a Mountain Biker, who had come off his bike and gone over the handle bars. I followed the ABC system we had been taught and was soon back outside. Everyone else finished their second scenarios before I was finally called back to my medical scenario, a man who had taken an overdose. After following the procedure and explaining everything I would do, I had finally passed. So that’s me for another three years.

Wednesday 10th October 2007 19:30 hrs – Radio Training

Tonight, Bernie and John are giving us a presentation on Radios. Bernie gives the full technical run down on everything from how the radios work, to the different channels we have reserved for Mountain Rescue use. We spend a bit of time discussing the correct procedures we should use when talking on the radio. This is not as obvious as it firsts sounds, as when we have eight teams out, along with two links and base, the traffic can be very busy and getting a message through can be quite difficult. Bernie finishes by getting us all to turn on our radios and practice changing channels. This has the effect of making the room sound as though we are at the checkouts in a large supermarket and it takes a further ten minutes to get us all to turn them off again!

Saturday 13th October 2007 09:00 hrs – Off Road Driving Training

There are lots of downsides to living in an increasingly litigious society. It means a lot more paperwork work and keeping up to date with health and safety, however every now and again there is an upside to all this, and today is one of those days. The team has a group of people who are trained to drive the Land Rovers and to remain on that list you have to have both a current Casualty Care certificate (ticked off last weekend) and have attended an off road driving course. Today it was time to get the final part of my training up to date and do some serious off road driving in the process.

It was an early start, as Vinny had offered to give me a lift over to the training company, Corporate Pursuits, based near Pontifract in Yorkshire. We met our instructors at 9am in a pub car park and were driven down to a near by quarry where the driving would take palce.

We met Ian, the lead instructor for the day, who reminded us of the theory of off road driving. After revising for our medical exams the weekend before, my head was still full of diagnosis and drug contra-indications, so when I was asked about the number of differentials on a Land Rover, it took some time to drag the answer from the back of my memory.

We went through how with a standard differential, once you loose grip on a wheel, the transmission will send all the power to the wheel which is spinning, so you will loose power to all wheels. There was quite a bit of theory we needed to get through, but soon we were making our way out to put this into practice.
There were nine of us from the team, so we split into three groups with an instructor in each vehicle. We started out with a practice of failed hill starts. This is probably the most important skill we need to know. Basically, if you get a hill climb wrong, or loose traction and start to slide backwards, you need to be able to get the vehicle into reverse and get it back under control.

The three vehicles we were using were two diesel Land Rover Discoveries fitted with big off road tyres and a petrol V8 with road tyres. I ended up in the V8. Now I am not making excuses, but where you press the accelerator pedal in my old diesel Rover, there is quite a delay while it makes up it’s mind if it is going to do anything or not. In fact there is very little difference between not accelerating and slamming your foot to the floor. So to me the accelerator on this big V8 was more like an “on / off” switch! It seemed I was either not enough power, or revving the a**s off it and spinning the wheels in the mud. It took some practice to get used to its subtleties.

We did some very careful driving through a tight woodland track and over a cross axle track where we aptly demonstrated how you loose power if you leave one wheel hanging in the air!

Next we had a go at some more familiar terrain, a rocky hill. This was very similar to our most frequent obstacle, the rocky track up to Edale Cross, which we all love so much! It took some very careful maneuvering and extremely slow creeping to make our way over these rocks. We went as slowly as we could manage, though as ever it was a balancing act between giving it enough power to get over the boulders and not letting it get away.

I had almost managed to pull off a perfect line through the rocks without damaging anything and carried out an impressive decent off the final large boulder. I heard someone say “He’s done it”, and started to pull away. CRUNCH – I obviously hadn’t quite “done it”. Fortunately it was only the tow bar!!
The next thing on the list was water crossing.

By now we were just about starting to get the hang of it and this one wasn’t as difficult as it first looked. We then went on to some steeper assents and descents. It was getting quite muddy now and this was particularly difficult in the V8.

Our final activity was a test of all the skills we had learned in the day. We were sent over a track which I assumed was just a joke route when we first arrived. The entry to the route was a short but incredibly steep section, with just enough room to perch a vehicle on the top. I gave it plenty of power and went for it. As soon as you hit the slope, all you can see is sky, so in my enthusiasm not to jump clean off the other side, I stopped just too short of the top. This meant an urgent practice of my newly learned failed hill start technique. I managed to slam it into reverse just before we careered backwards down the hill. I made sure I got it right on the next attempt and completed the rest of the course.

It was an excellent and very informative day. We managed to get our skills back up to speed and had a great time in the process. Before we left, Vinny gave me a memento of my day.

It was a piece of the boulder I broke off with the Land Rover’s tow bar earlier. Thanks.

Here is a video of the day’s events.

More Photos....

You can find out more info about the course provider, Corporate Pursuits here..

Sunday 14th October 2007 17:10 hrs – Callout

It had been a quite Sunday. After yesterday’s busy driving course I had been taking an easy day. I was due to get up at 4am the next day to drive to London, so I was just in the process of getting my things together. Shirt ironed – check, bag packed – check, shoes cleaned – beep, beep, beep, beep. A text message appeared on my phone, “Callout, RV Hut – Neale”. I sent a reply to say I would be attending and started a new checklist: Rucksack packed, flask made, batteries in GPS. My daughter even joined in. “Can I make you a sandwich, dad?” I thought I should take advantage of this while she’s still enthusiastic. Just before I set off, I called Neale to see if any of the vehicles needed collecting. Paul M was collecting one, but no-one had the other one yet, so he asked me to pick it up.

I made my way to the hut. As I arrived I noticed someone had beaten me to collecting Mobile 2, so I just made my way in and signed on. There was a message saying that a man and a woman were lost in the mist on the top of Kinder. Darren was in contact with them on their Mobile phone. They had taken a route around the edge of Kinder, but on the way back they had headed across the plateau and when the mist came down they could not find their bearings. He told them to sit tight and wait for our teams to come and find them. Two search parties had been sent out to their approximate location and Darren had also called the Edale team, who sent up a runner and two search dog teams, one of which was John Coombs (who came over to give us a talk on SARDA last month – see September diary).

After a short wait while the next stages of the search plan were put in place, I was asked to take the role of Casualty Care in a search party with Howard, Bob and Hamish. We were given a route to search which went up the front of Kinder Low and then back-tracked their path to see if they had come down the wrong way. We then had to wait for one of the Land Rovers to return to ferry us up the track to our departure point.

When the first one returned, Lofty was given the chance to put yesterday’s course into practice and drive us up the track. As we slowly made our way up the rocky track we heard some developments on the radio. Paul M in Mobile 1 had been sounding the vehicles siren and the missing couple had called Darren to say that they could hear it. This meant that we were in the general area. We unloaded from the vehicle and started our route, just in case the sound was drifting and they weren’t where we thought they were.

It was by no means a cold night, but the recent rain had made the paths very wet, and it wasn’t long before I was knee deep in mud. We turned and started the plod up the steep front of Kinder Low. About half way up we picked up a message that a search dog team had found them, closely followed by a message to hold our position. We sat there for a while eating the contents of our sandwich boxes and admiring the impressive view of the lights of Manchester and the Cheshire Plain.

We heard that a Kinder party had now met up with the dog team and were escorting the couple back to our Land Rover to be driven down to base. A gentle prompt from Bernie on link, saw Base requesting us to make our way back to Lofty at Mobile 2.

He treated us to a demonstration of his hill descent technique on the bumpy track and dropped us with tall Paul who was waiting with his vehicle at the bottom. Lofty then returned to ferry the other teams back down the track.

When we got back to base most of the others had gone. It would have been a night of waiting around to see if they were needed for some people. We always have to have people left in reserve in case there had turned out to be an injury and kit needed to go up. Sometimes you go out, sometimes you wait around. In fact, even when you do go out, you often end up waiting around!

It turned out that the couple had been found by John and his dog, Biscuit. So his lecture about how his dog is good at air scenting on the top of Kinder had turned out to be true.

It had been a well organised and reasonably quick find, which meant that I even got home in time to get a good night’s sleep before my early start.

More Photos....

Sunday 21st October 2007 08:40 hrs – Exercise

Sunday morning dawned a bright clear day. It was looking like a promising day for our Sunday exercise. It was to be by callout, which usually means a text message somewhere around 9am. Even though I had been up since 6:30, courtesy of my children, I was trying my best not to get ready too quickly. At 8:40 the message came in to RV at the hut.

I finished off packing my bag and made my way over. When I got there, the scenario was a missing man, who had planned a walk to visit some of the many aircraft crash sites on the Kinder Plateau. As the search plan was put together, we gathered around the big map on the wall, trying to work out where all the major crash sites were. Unfortunately the list of sites he planned to visit were scattered right across the whole of the plateau.

I ended up with the role of Casualty Care, in a team with Dave, Howard and Doug. We were sent to cover the start of his route, passing the Liberator and Sabers crash sites on the way. We had a sneaking suspicion that we wouldn’t be finding the missing person near the start of the route, but in a search like this, the objective is to clear all the possible locations and escape routes. Still, it was a beautiful day for a walk!

We set out to make our way from Monks Rd up to Mill Hill. About half way up this track, we stopped at the Liberator crash site to see if there was any sign of the man. This is quite a large crash site, with debris at the original impact site and a second larger site where the RAF recovery team had moved the wreckage to make it safe.

Here is an account of the Liberator crash:

Liberator B-24J 42-52003 USAAF, 310 Ferrying Squadron, crashed at Mill Hill 11th October 1944

The Liberator crashed while on a ferrying flight from Burtonwood near Warrington to Hardwick near Norwich. On a very foggy morning in October, Pilot Lieutenant Creighton Haopt and Flight Engineer Jerry Najvar thundered down the runway into the grey wall of fog, so bad was the weather even the birds were walking! After smashing into several runway lights and two failed attempts to get airborne, the Liberator finally lumbered into the air, but only just.

It had been a shaky take off, but Haopt became more relaxed when he gained full control of the aircraft. Jerry unbuckled his harness and went aft to check for damage that might have occurred during the take off. Back in the cockpit Jerry gave the thumbs up that everything was ok and proceeded to take out a map, he noticed they were on a direct course for high ground. "I checked the altimeter and it was indicating 1,500 feet, we were too low to clear the hills," recalled Jerry. " I Jabbed my finger at the high ground on the map and read off the elevation for that area. Then I indicated with my thumb that we had better get some height." Haopt nodded as if he understood, but he made no attempt to climb. Had he misunderstood the signal to climb for a 'thumbs up - all's well' indication? Jerry was growing more concerned over pilot's inaction. Jerry peered out of the cockpit window when he suddenly saw something dark pass under the aircraft. " I grabbed the control column and pulled back on it with all my strength , the pilot realised what I was doing and tried to help." They were too late, they were travelling at 150 mph as the underbelly of the aircraft started slicing through the heather, then onto moorland grass and rocks, the aircraft disintegrated along the way. Jerry remembers waking up in hospital, and apart from the shock and some cuts to the face and some bruising, he had got off lightly. Haopt had more serious facial injuries, however they both made a full recovery.

Crew list:-
Pilot, Lieutenant Creighton Haopt.
Flight Engineer, Sergeant Jerome (Jerry) Najvar.

From there we made our way to Mill Hill, where we split up to check the Sabers Crash site. These planes crashed in mid air, so the debris is scattered both on the top of the Plateau and down in the Ashop valley. Dave and myself went down into the bottom of the valley to check the main site.

Here is an account of the Sabers Crash:

Sabres XD707 & XD730 - 66 Squadron RAF crashed 22nd July 1954

On exercise from Linton-on-Ouse Flying Officer Jim Horne and Flight Lieutenant Alan Green descended through low cloud to check ground position. It is thought that they collided whilst climbing to fly above Kinder Scout. Both aircraft clipped the top of the hill above Kinder Reservoir and spilled on to the Ashop Moor side of the hill, There were no survivors.

From here, we headed straight up the side of the Northern Edges to meet up with Howard, Doug and some well deserved lunch.

Just as we were about to set off again, we heard a message to say that the missing man had been found. Unfortunately it was on Brown Knoll, which is on completely the other side of Kinder. This would take us quite a while to get to and the chances of us making a meaningful contribution were slim. We set off any way.

Eventually, as we were starting to get somewhere near, we heard that the man had been recovered and we could stand down. It was just a question of getting back down to base and taking advantage of the local beer garden while it was still sunny.

More Photos....

Thursday 25th October 2007 16:15 hrs – Callout

Thursday afternoon and I am just heading home from Liverpool, where I have been working today. My phone starts bleeping at me, “Snatch Callout – Styal Park, 60 Mins – Darren”. There’s no chance of me getting my gear and making it there in time, so I leave this one for others to deal with.

It turned out that the Ambulance service had called us after one of their teams was having difficulty recovering a boy with a broken leg. The problem from our point of view, was that it takes about half an hour to get from our base to Styal Park on a clear run. This was through the south Manchester rush hour traffic, so it was going to take a lot longer.

Understandably, by the time our vehicle arrived, they had managed to recover the boy, so we weren’t needed. This happens now and again, as we are a voluntary service and our members all have “real” jobs, we are never going to be in a position where we can respond in the same timescales as the full-time services.

Friday 26th October 2007 20:00 hrs – Team Meeting

Tonight’s meeting was preceded by the now regular occurrence of an Extraordinary General Meeting. This was to clear up some of the vacancies left behind from the previous elections. After an almost exciting appearance of the voting shoe box (don’t ask), Dave was elected as Training Officer and Lofty as Equipment Officer. Let’s hope that’s the end of the voting for a while.

The rest of the meeting was the usual reports of what each of the officers had been up to, with a first punt from Dave and Lofty. Congratulations were offered to Ian, who has managed get his dog through the assessment and is now a full Search Dog. Also it was announced that Steve and Amanda have finished their probationary training and are now full members on the callout list. Darren finished off with an update on our recent callouts and then it was off downstairs to the bar.