Issue 50: Rescue Me

Business is booming for mountain rescue

If mountain rescue meant money, teams around the country would be slapping themselves on the back. Mountain Rescue (England and Wales) have just published their incident report for 2007 and one thing’s for sure – business has been good.

Last year (the 75th anniversary of mountain rescue in the UK) saw 778 incidents and 1117 ‘persons assisted’, a real improvement on 2005 (693 incidents) and 2003 (597 incidents). Accountants would love the angle of that graph, and if teams operated on a charge-per-rescue basis, they’d all be in the black. But they don’t, and they aren’t: UK mountain rescue is free, and the teams are made up of voluntary members. Right now, from Wasdale to Edale, they’re not slapping their backs, they’re scratching their heads – just why are they so busy?

It’s a common public misconception that mountain rescue is part of the emergency services network. In fact it’s a completely separate, voluntary organisation funded by charitable donations. It consists of 55 teams in England and Wales (plus 27 in Scotland) operated by 3,500 volunteers; volunteers on call, 24-hours a day, every single day of the year.

Their mission statement is “To provide assistance to anyone who becomes lost or injured in the mountains, fells or moorland for whatever reason.” Even if that reason is that people couldn’t be bothered to take a torch, didn’t set off early enough, didn’t know how to navigate or were simply expecting a free guiding service. Mountain rescue has a problem.

The Lakes Teams are winning – or losing – by a long margin. They can boast 298 hill walking incidents last year – 73% of all hill walking incidents in England and Wales. They first noticed something was up last spring, with three rescues in a day by the Wasdale team. Then, in the summer season, this same team – all with jobs and lives of their own – had 31 callouts in 42 days. Many down to the Three Peaks Challenge. By mid-November they’d taken 103 ‘999’ calls: 73 requiring ‘significant team effort’ on the mountains and 30 down to walkers essentially requesting a ‘free guiding service’.

Nationwide, many teams report the same. They’re spending an increasing amount of time on trivial incidents. Increasing numbers of people are ill-equipped, ill-prepared, inexperienced and over ambitious. It’s a trend that shows no sign of slowing, a problem that will continue to get worse unless action is taken. At a recent Mountain Rescue conference, possible solutions were discussed: a national public awareness campaign, providing local mountain guide’s phone numbers in the first instance or issuing an invoice.

This was meant as a light-hearted joke, but could it also be a possible glimpse of the future? A significant increase in non-life threatening rescues will surely compromise the ability of any team to respond to the more serious incidents. If last year proves to be the thin end of the wedge, then the face of mountain rescue as we know it might change, and not necessarily for the better.

Join BaseCamp
BaseCamp is the national supporters group for Mountain Rescue in England and Wales. It’s a way that everyone can give a little money to help mountain rescue teams across country. Join from just £2 per month to get a car sticker, lapel badge and a quarterly magazine. Help them – one day they may help you.

See www.mountain.rescue.org.uk