All this whilst continuing to practise and hone their first aid skills, technical ropework, water rescue and search management, and maintaining their bases, equipment and vehicles.
Forty-eight mountain rescue teams cover England and Wales, from the highest mountains, across the rolling fells and moorlands, to sea-lashed cliffs.
Mt Greylock Hiking Map Photo Gallery
Frequently, they’re heading out into the wilds when the rest of us would think twice about setting foot outside. And they’re all volunteers whose only motivation is to bring help where it’s needed, in whatever way they can.
Truly a community service – and so much more than mountains.
Thousands of pig iron ingots are strewn everywhere and last year at least three brass portholes and three sets of zinc anodes, weighing 30 kilos, were recovered from beneath the algae-covered girders and concretion. A massive wolf fish, with large horse-like teeth, lives in the largest pipe, part of a hollow mast, and never fails to make threatening gestures to anyone getting too close to its home. Big clumps of juicy mussels cling to the bottom of some of the kelp stalks and the surrounding gully walls and rocks are a thick carpet of tiny baby mussels. The bottom of the gully on this site, which is in the 18 metre range, is exposed to some strong currents. When the tide is running, it is strongly recommended that you move higher up the gully into shallower water before surfacing, to avoid being swept hundreds of metres down tide before you ever reach the surface. The whole of the top of the Whirls is covered in a dense forest of thick stalked kelp. Channels, or small gullies one or two metres deep, run across the top of the reef in an east-west direction. Fair numbers of crustaceans can be located in the small slots and crevices formed by twisted wreckage, which are usually hidden by the dense coating of brown algae-type weed, but a sharp eye is required to spot the red ends of the lobster’s tell-tale antennae. Depths range from four to ten metres, with the gullies and channels a bit deeper. There is no problem swimming in any of the gullies on the reef top, even when the tide is in full flow, but once you move above the kelp level the force of water is strong enough to send you tumbling head over heels and purge your demand valve.
