Mountain Rescue And Search In The Lake District

by R. Cook

The extent to which rock climbing and mountain walking has increased in the past few years is amazing; sadly this has brought with it a comparable increase in the number of accidents, mainly due to lack of appreciation of the dangers involved.

Twelve years ago nearly 60% of accidents on the mountains were rock climbing and 40% walking, in 1960 the proportions were 50/50 while today, 1970, mountain walking accidents account for 60% of the total. Records show that 75% of accidents are due to inexperience, ignorance and incompetence caused by unsuitable footwear, poor clothing, lack of adequate food, not turning back in bad conditions and so exceeding physical ability. Three out of four exposure cases resulted from faulty timing, late starts and being overtaken by darkness.

In the years 1965 to 1969 Lakeland rescue teams were called out 438 times and had to deal with 61 deaths and 346 injuries. In 1968 teams turned out on 23 occasions to search for persons reported missing and 1,150 man-hours were wasted by searchers because the missing persons did not appreciate that the Police should be informed (a 999 call) as early as possible if they had to spend the night elsewhere than at their base or if they had reached safety and gone away.

The responsibility for searching for missing persons and recovering bodies from the mountains rests officially with the Police, but the idea of policemen undertaking this work without the help of experienced mountaineers is almost too ludicrous to merit consideration. Nowadays the Police act as link between the rescue teams and base. When they receive notice of a person missing or of an accident, they inform the local Team Leader and alert the members of the team. Then they man the Radio Communications equipment, call out extra help if necessary, call ambulance and doctor as required and they are often themselves active members of the team.

The history of how it all started is interesting. It has always been a tradition that one goes to the help of anybody who is in need, day or night. In the early days of climbing when help was required it was farmers, quarrymen and local residents who, with the Police, took on the responsibility of finding and bringing down those who were reported lost or injured. Miners’ headlamps were used for searches in the dark, borrowed lorries for transport and the injured were often carried down on gates.

The Mountain Rescue Committee had its origin as far back as 1933 when the Fell and Rock Climbing Club and the Rucksack Club devised a stretcher (later known as the Thomas Stretcher) for use on steep, rough country. Suitable medical items were collected, made up into kits and deposited at various centres and in hotels. Later the First Aid Committee of British Mountaineering Clubs was formed and appeals for donations were made. In 1946 the Mountain Rescue Committee (MRC) came into being and arranged with the Ministry of Health for the cost of first aid equipment and replacements to be provided through the National Health Service. The M.R.C. now provides morphia to rescue teams affiliated to it and organises insurance cover for all persons engaged in an official search or rescue.

The first official Lakeland rescue team was Coniston in 1947, comprising farmers, quarrymen, shopkeepers and other local residents with Jim Cameron as Leader. Rusty Westmorland formed Keswick later in the same year, then followed Langdale with Sid Cross as Leader. By 1960 there were seven main rescue teams in Lakeland. Dr. Madge, Medical Officer of Health for Kendal, formed the Lake District Mountain Accidents Association and organised searches in the southern part of Lakeland, with bloodhounds to help. Later the teams not then in the Association combined with the Search Panel to form a newly constituted L.D.M.A.A.

As a result of a prolonged search in 1960 Sid Cross called a meeting of all interested parties and the Search Panel was formed consisting of the Leaders of the seven main rescue teams, a representative of the Police, the Wardens of the Eskdale and Ullswater Outward Bound Mountain Schools, with myself as Hon. Secretary; later Brian Stilling came in as Incident Report Officer and John Wyatt as Lakeland Chief Warden. As a result of all this it is now possible to put at least 250 searchers into the field on the first day, 400 or so on the second and up to 500 on each subsequent day. The R.A.F. Mountain Rescue Team, and helicopters, are also available.

From the foregoing it will be seen that there is in Lakeland a very large voluntary unpaid organisation ready at all times to do what it can for those who get into trouble. All teams are self-supporting, funds being obtained from appeals to Climbing and Rambling Clubs, Local Authorities, collecting boxes, donations received as the result of accident, social functions and lectures; in addition charitable organisations such as the Wolfson Foundation have made generous gifts, and teams have received Radio Communication sets on loan from the M.R.C. The expense of running such an organisation is heavy.

The most essential items of equipment, and the most costly, are ambulances of the Land Rover type, capable of negotiating very rough tracks, and radio equipment. Each team must be provided with stretchers, ropes, spare clothing and boots, plastic splints, head lamps, field glasses, rucksacks, carabiners, pitons and hammers, crash helmets, slings, anoraks, sleeping bag and blankets for the injured, ice axes; all of these are subject to depreciation and must in time be replaced. The Langdale team alone has spent over £400 on such equipment over the past four years; depreciation and replacement costs some £230 per year.

Radio communication has now come to play an essential part in mountain rescue and its value has been greatly enhanced by the introduction of light-weight walkie-talkie sets; those made by Pye are the most satisfactory but cost £105 the set. Appeals for these to the Ministry of Health have been turned down and when Lord Chorley raised the point in the House of Lords he was told that “if young men undertake this voluntary and dangerous sport, they should form themselves into clubs and make contributions to purchase some of this equipment.” However, voluntary contributions have made it possible for most of the teams to be equipped with these sets, few are now without and funds are gradually being accumulated to provide them. The following points show how necessary such sets are and what great advantages they give: —

(a) On a widespread search, the Panel directs operations from Base; the need to be in constant touch with all operating teams during a major incident is vital.
(b)    Much time is saved by the Panel being able to deploy forces on the fells. As a team completes a task instructions can at once be given as to what it is to do next.
(c)    At night additional searchers and rescuers can be asked for and directed to the scene of the accident. When lowering the stretcher down rock faces instructions can pass between those above and the man who is guiding the stretcher down.
(d) When a casualty is found, this is reported to Base, giving
the estimated time of arrival in the valley; thus Doctor
and Ambulance are not kept waiting.
(e) Base can give medical advice about on the spot treatment
to the casualty as required.
(f)   Nearby teams can be deployed to help bring down the casualty more quickly and safely.
(g)   The major problem of recalling teams when a search or
rescue is over is made easy, especially in bad weather.

It is recognised that any planned system of search procedure must be flexible but, subject to that, the following sequence of events has been agreed between the Search Panel and the Police: —

(1)    Almost all requests for search are made late in the evening to the local Police Station; the Police Officer responsible calls out the nearest rescue or search team.
(2)    If the missing person has not been reported safe by 23.00 hours the Team Leader will take, or send, out a group of six to eight men to search the tracks or areas indicated, however dark the night and whatever the weather. The remainder of the team will be warned to report at daybreak.
(3)    Early next morning, the Leader of the night search will report to the Police and Team Leader; if his group has been unsuccessful the remainder of the team will be briefed and sent out at daybreak. If the Police and Team Leader agree that it is desirable the Search Panel will be called in to meet at a specified time and place.
(4)    When the panel meets, it will call in, through the Police, as many search teams as it considers necessary and will begin to deploy them as is deemed expedient.

Epilogue

On Raven Crag a climber fell off the difficult step near the top and finished up in a tree with one leg jammed on one side of the trunk and the other on the opposite side. Sid could not free the leg and sent for a saw to cut the branch away. When it arrived he got himself lowered down on a rope and started to saw through the branch. It was difficult as he was swinging round on the rope while sawing and he got the shock of his life when he suddenly saw a boot falling away from the victim —he thought he’d sawn the fellow’s leg off. But no, the laces had broken in the fall and the boot had slid off as the man struggled to free his foot.