Over the weekend of 13th/15th September, twelve team members journeyed North to Edinburgh, for the UK Mountain Rescue Conference, joining over 500 colleagues from the Irish Mountain Rescue Association , the Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland & the Mountain Rescue Council of England & Wales. We were also joined by members of the Association of Lowland Search and Rescue & the British Cave Rescue Council. The Conference attracted considerable grant support from the National Lottery Community Fund, the Priory of Scotland of the Order of St John & Keela.
There was a comprehensive lecture programme, featuring current trends, research and techniques, with both UK presenters & guest speakers from the New Zealand, Hong Kong, United States & Norwegian SAR community. An excellent Saturday evening presentation featured the successful Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service Everest expedition.
Over 55 prizes comprised the raffle. [We had 4 winners – see below], with thanks to all who donated prizes.
As usual despite warnings the bar did run out of 70 Shillings & Tetley ! Yet again our Team Leader got lost trying to find the venue, [blame his driver Mark Parry !] and despite the adage “he should know better at his age” [and the same thing happening at his previously attended 15 other MRC Conferences] our TL. endured Saturday with a reasonable hangover.
Finally big thanks from all our attendees at this hugely successful conference, to the Conference Chairman Peter Howells, [TL CBMRT & MRC Vice Secretary], Penny Brockman [CBMRT & MRC Finance Sub-Committee] who obtained the NLCG and to all the other hardworking members of the Conference organizing committee. “You did a great job.”
At the UKMRC, team member Diane Blakeley’s raffle prize [donated to the team] was that of a radio charger / conditioner unit, generously donated to the raffle by ACT [Advanced Charger Technology] of Eyam, worth a fantastic £750:00. [Nikwax products and a Searchlamp constituted our other booty]
Also at the UKMRC, another team member was fortunate to win a Streamlight Litebox hand torch, worth over £200 which was donated by Easytool Ltd of Aidrie. Already, the Litebox has demonstrated excellent power and light coverage for team training exercises and also provided valuable scene lighting for the recent operational rescue in Bury (see picture below from incident 84/2002). BMRT have a policy of continuous review and maintenance of rescue equipment; and our satisfaction with the use of the Streamlight Litebox torch has made it a likely replacement for our existing scene/incident lighting.
