Ramblings
Saunterings
Ramblings: about North-West England
Ramblings is a set of articles about North-West England, of unknown authorship and
indeterminate date, believed to have been written for amusement on rainy days,
which are not unknown in North-West England.
32. At Your Beck and Fell
Cumbrian Mountain Service: Executive Directors’ Annual Report
This has been a very successful and profitable year for the CMS.
The number of incidents was 1834, up 285% on the previous
year, with the number of injuries or deaths down to 0, a decrease of
100%. The number of person-hours spent on incidents was 36,355
(up 47%) but the welfare of our service teams was much improved,
with no cases of post-traumatic stress disorder.
This improvement is largely due to the changes instituted
last year, when we dropped the word ‘rescue’ from our title and
adopted a policy of only responding to calls where no injury was
involved.
All companies have to evolve to meet the changing demands
of its customers and, in our case, this meant responding to the
numerous mobile phone calls from people whose day out on the
fells might otherwise be spoilt by some minor inconvenience.
To enable this, it was necessary to eliminate the resource-expensive and
dangerous call-outs to seriously injured people.
Scores of people are injured on football pitches every weekend and
they all call on NHS ambulances. Why should it be different for
walkers and climbers in Cumbria? The NHS receives billions of
pounds of government money; the CMS receives nothing.
The morale of the CMS teams is much better. The strain of
coping with 28 deaths and 415 serious injuries (as in the previous
year) should not be underestimated. Our men and women are
delighted to have achieved a 96% success rate this year, and look
forward to helping in any way required in the future.
It should perhaps be emphasised that the teams still assist
people who are lost on the fells, as these generally provide an
enjoyable and challenging outing.
As is customary, I conclude by thanking all those organisations
with whom we have worked this year, especially the Lifeboat
Association, which, after some persuasion, has taken over all
incidents on the lakes. Clearly, a lake is not a mountain, and
therefore incidents there are nothing to do with CMS. It was absurd
to list deaths by drowning in the mountain rescue service report, as
we did in the past.
We are also very grateful to those members of the public who
have supported our work, including those who have bought a copy
of our new book At Your Beck and Fell, which gives details of all our
new services. It is available for £19.99 from all good bookshops,
and many bad ones as well.
Here follows details of the 1834 incidents:
001 January 1st 10.35; Whiteside NY173220;
Very windy, dry;
Walking; Man (56);
Hat (red with green ribbon) blown off;
Retrieved from Gasgale Gill and returned;
Wasdale 2; 3 hours; Gannet SAR helicopter.
002 January 1st 11.15; Loadpot Hill NY457182;
Windy, light rain;
Strolling; Man (23);
Confused whether it was the minute hand or the hour hand of
the compass that was painted red;
Advised by telephone;
Coniston 1; 14 minutes.
003 January 1st 13.15; Caw SD231945;
Windy, dry;
Ambling; Men (48, 52), Women (23, 49);
Found that they had forgotten to bring sugar for their tea;
Sugar delivered;
Duddon 2; 2 hours; Boulmer helicopter.
004 January 3rd 12.20; Great Calva NY291312;
Low cloud;
Striding; Men (32, 41);
Fighting after disagreement over location, CMS called by rest of
group;
Order restored, no injuries (unless you count a bloody nose);
Keswick 4; 5 hours.
005 January 4th 15.00; Latrigg NY275246;
Cloudy, rain;
Dawdling; Woman (76);
Distressed, confused, lost husband;
Assisted back to hotel, had lost her husband a fortnight ago,
card of condolence sent;
Keswick 2; 3 hours.
continued underleaf
Photo:
Sea King in Wasdale.
Comments:
• I fully support the CMS's change of mission.
I look forward to using its services. I was reluctant to do so in the past
in case they were engaged in some serious rescue. I was always amazed that millions of
people scramble about on the hills, twisting ankles and breaking
legs, and thousands of foolhardy ‘climbers’ deliberately endanger
themselves by tackling the most precipitous cliffs, when, inevitably, from
time to time, they fall off, causing themselves serious injury or
death. And they expect the Mountain Rescue Service to pick up
the pieces, without any payment whatsoever!
Ramblings
Saunterings
© John Self, Drakkar Press, 2024-
Top photo: Rainbow over Kisdon in Swaledale;
Bottom photo: Ullswater