Mountain Rescue England and Wales

The Oracle is a continually growing resource for mountain and cave rescue in the UK. Download the pdfs to read onscreen or print off for your files.

There are fifteen sections, each covering a different aspect of our work:

Section 1: National organisation and administration: The national organisations which coordinate mountain and cave rescue in England, Wales and Scotland.

Section 2: Team organisation and administration: Run the modern rescue team – VAT, finances and account keeping, insurance issues, the Charity Commission, CRB checks, equipment inventories...

Section 3: Operational issues: Team leadership, major incidents, dealing with the relatives of a casualty, sleep deprivation, working with other agencies, risk assessment, aircraft crashes, dealing with fatalities...

Section 4: Communications: The digital and techie stuff – radios, SARCALL, SARLOC, call signs, GPS mapping and tracking.

Section 5: Skills and training: Best practice through the eyes of experienced team members – anchor selection, knots, mountaineering skills, navigation, rigging and belays, working with helicopters, search, winter skills...

Section 6: Vehicles and driving: Purchasing, customisation, VAT issues, maintenance, loading, basic driver training, off road driving and blues and twos.

Section 7: Equipment: Vacuum mattresses, stretchers, casbags, equipment testing and HSE legislation.

Section 8: Medical: Casualty Care and general medical information.

Section 9: Safety and Advice: Including mountain weather, Scottish land access and mobile phone use.

Section 10: Water: Safety around the water margin, swiftwater and inland water rescue, dealing with floods, equipment and RYA training.

Section 11: Other agencies: The agencies we work with, including the statutory emergency services and other  rescue organisations such as  IMRA, SARDA, UKSAR, MCA, IKAR, ARCC, ALSAR, Air Ambulance, Isle of Man SAR and the RAF.

Section 12: Underground rescue: Caves and cave rescue.

Section 13: Teams and regions: Profiles of the teams and regions.

Section 14: History: The history of mountain and cave rescue in the UK.

Section 15: PR and Fundraising: Dealing with the media, social media and fundraising.