Mountain Rescue England and Wales

Welcome to a new feature of the members' area. It's early days yet, with only a few articles in each section (and some sections without articles!)  –  but think of this as a growing resource for mountain and cave rescue in the UK. Download the pdfs to read onscreen or print off for your files.

There are fourteen 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: all the information you might need to run a modern rescue team. Includes VAT matters, team finances and account keeping, insurance issues, dealing with the Charity Commission, CRB checks, equipment inventories.

Section 3: Operational issues: information and advice, written from 'experience in the field'– the stuff you might need to keep the team operational and functioning at its best. Includes team leadership, major incidents, dealing with the relatives of a casualty, the effects of sleep deprivation, pyrotechnics, extendeed rescues, working with other agencies, risk assessment search management, aircraft crashes, dealing with fatalities and the scene of incident.

Section 4: Communications: Looks at radio equipment, procedures and protocols, call signs, GPS mapping and tracking.

Section 5: Skills and training: Best practice through the eyes of experienced team members. Includes recommendations and instructions on anchor selection, knots, mountaineering skills, navigation, rigging for rescue, steep ground rescue, rock belays, working with helicopters, search, winter skills, and information about the available training courses.

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 including  paediatrics.

Section 9: Safety and Advice: includes information on reading the mountain climate and its impact on mountain rescue team operations, Scottish land access, mobile phone use and PLBs.

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

Section 11: Other agencies: information about the other agencies we deal with, and work with, including the statutory emergency services, as well as other  rescue organisations such as  IMRA, SARDA, UKSAR, The Maritime Coastguard Agency, IKAR, ARCC, ALSAR, Air Ambulance, Isle of Man SAR and, of course, the RAF.

Section 12: Underground rescue: this section will cover everything to do with caves and cave rescue.

Section 13: Teams and regions: background and history to the individual teams and regions.

Section 14: History: the development of mountain rescue in England and Wales.