Dec 12 2014

An ‘eyewitness’ account of Wednesday night’s exercise, 10th December 2014, curtailed somewhat by a bolt from the heavens

Readers will recall that our account of our Wednesday evening exercise of 10th December 2014 mentioned a witnessed lightning bolt …… our reporter for this, our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE got the details a little wrong, hence the below account from very experienced team member Mark Scott who ‘was there.’

“Minor corrections regards the 10th December exercise article:
There were TWO ground-reaching lightning bolts, one on either side of Anshaw Clough, close to us in both cases.

The earth shook each time – “some say the earth was feverish, and did shake” (Macbeth). Well, ok, that last bit’s a bit of an exaggeration! They were loud and close, though!
Team member Samantha McKay was party leader for the crag team, I was appointed crag safety by our Training Officer Alistair Greenough (who was with the probationers team).

I called a halt to the exercise after failing to get Alistair on the radio to consult with.

I think he was busy trying to break his arm – something he failed to achieve, as it turned out, according to the magic of x-rays. (Webmaster, Alistair took a little tumble onto his wrist, thankfully there appears to be immediate problems other than a little tenderness)
We did most of the exercise, including some orange-injecting. (Webmaster – practising injections)

All that remained to do was to load the stretcher with the exercise casualty.
At Nigel Booth’s suggestion we tied a rope to the Bell to drag it at a distance as we descended, as it was prudent not to carry it.
Cheers, Mark (sparky) Scott.”

By • Training •