On Sunday past, the team attended yet another call out, the 33rd of the year.
Our callouts at this time of year seem to be caused by simple navigation errors, and sometimes these can get people stuck in areas that can prove tricky to extract. In the case of this shout, that’s exactly what happened.
The team was called out by Police Scotland Forth Valley to aid lost walkers with limited info on the exact location, we were able to narrow it down to several areas in the Trossachs. Thankfully, a number of search areas were quickly assessed and excluded. Handily, our experience of the area and the local knowledge of our coordinators knew exactly where the missing person would likely be. We called on the skills of one of our long serving team members, Gordy, and his boat to evacuate the missing persons from the edge of Loch Katrine and returned them to the coordination point. Thankfully the ability to use a boat to rescue someone from the side of Loch Katrine (Ben Venue) proved very useful and saved us and the lost walkers a long awkward night on the steep sides of Ben Venue.
Like many teams our membership is made-up of people with different skills, last week it was the access of an argocart and a knowledge of local land workers in the team that led to the quick extraction of a missing person on Ben Vorlich. This week, we were able to call on the skills of our very own boatmaster and his vessel. Now, while some of our team members thought they were auditioning for a remake of the ‘vital spark’ the fact is that having these skills in the team is invaluable. And that’s what makes mountain rescue team members a pretty special group of people.
However it’s worth remembering, mountain rescue teams are made up of volunteers with unique skills over and above mountain capabilities. And while we try our best to get to people as quick as possible. These resources are not always available. That’s why knowing how to use navigation skills such as a map and compass can prevent situations where people might get lost, but should an incident or an injury occur the casualty can give us their location ideally an accurate OS grid reference. By having basic mountain skills you are helping us to help you.
