MOUNTAIN RESCUE CONFERENCE SCOTLAND TO SET THE SCENE FOR MOUNTAIN RESCUE WEEKEND The Scottish Highlands will provide the backdrop for the UK and Ireland Mountain Rescue biennial conference on 12-14 September, which will see mountain rescue teams from the Republic of Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland come together to share and build on best practice throughout the rescue community.
ountain rescue in Ireland and the UK is often WORKSHOPS TO KEEP TRACK OF BEST undertaken in some of PRACTICE the most remote and The two-day gathering of mountain rescue Mpotentially hostile environmental conditions volunteers will involve up to 30 small group experienced by the emergency services. workshops organised across the following five Highly professional mountain rescue ‘tracks’, as diverse as canyon rescue, river bank- volunteers are organised in teams across side searching, rope work and mountain safety the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, topics: Scotland, England and Wales. Teams train to a very high standard and are always 1. Technical Land Rescue: Rigging for rescue, ready to assist people any time, any day, 4×4 vehicle recovery to mountain biking. and in any weather. 2. Water Rescue: Technical water-related issues, such as canyon rescue and Every two years the UK and Irish riverbank searching. Mountain Rescue community holds a 3. Medical: Casualty management and the latest thinking on treating the conference; in 2014 it comes to the village hypothermic casualty. of Aviemore in the Cairngorms National 4. Human Factors: Developing rescue leaders to best practice in rescue trauma Park in the Scottish Highlands. counselling for volunteer rescuers. The conference will combine a mixture 5. Search: Search management skills and tools. of outdoor workshop sessions and indoor lectures building on best practice within There will also be indoor sessions in the management of big multi-team, multi- the volunteer mountain rescue community. agency searches as well as workshops on the more traditional mountain roles of The weekend event on 12-14 September searching and medical care of casualties. Each workshop is repeated over the will be organised by Scottish Mountain weekend so delegates get to design their own conference. Rescue.
INDOOR-OUTDOOR PURSUITS who make up the voluntary mountain will be ministers from UK and devolved With just five months to go before the rescue, cave rescue and search and governments; MPs and MSPs; chief conference takes place, over half the rescue dog associations in Ireland and the police officers from Scotland and military number of places at the UK & Ireland UK. heads, in addition to leading figures in MR conference have been sold. Lead The main meetings, delegate mountain rescue. conference organiser Martin McCallum accommodation, exhibition space and said that a small team is working hard to some of the workshops and lectures will make this the conference to remember. be held in the Highlands Hotel at the For Further Information: The conference will include a talk Macdonald Aviemore Resort in the heart Email: MRGathering2014@ from extreme climber Andy Kirkpatrick, of the village. mountainrescuescotland.org workshops led by world famous climber Also invited are affiliated bodies Website: http://mrgathering2014. Dave MacLeod and a wide range such as the military search and rescue, mountainrescuescotland.org/ of outdoor-based skills sessions in members of the police, ambulances Facebook: www.facebook.com/ Cairngorms National Park. services, fire and rescue services, mrgathering2014 Up to 400 top mountain rescue government resilience officers, coastguard Twitter: www.twitter.com/ experts from Ireland and the UK are and the search and rescue teams. MRGathering2014 expected to attend the conference, A civic reception will be held on Friday including team leaders and team members 12 September. Amongst the invited guests