That was a long day.
By 0900 this morning I was already on a Landrover heading out of base and up to the Neuadd valley. I’ve spoken of the Neuadd valley before, but this time there was no snow. We had a missing 24 year old man, who’d gone out to take photographs of the sunrise. By the time we got there, a weather front had moved in and light drizzle didn’t help a cloudbase of around 600m. I led one of the three parties and headed up the Roman Road, searching downhill with Wyn’s party searching the slopes above the Roman Road. The cloud and drizzle varied in thickness, with the occasional patch of rain making life interesting. We finally reached the gap, where we stopped for a breather as the terrain was very poor – boggy ground, grassy tussocks, hidden streams – it’s not a nice area to search.
From the gap, Wyn and I split up with his party heading up over the top of Cribyn, and my party taking the lower path. We could hear on the radio the third party making its way along the Neuadd Ridge. Finally, we had a radio message – a nearby walker had reported into control that he’d seen a man matching the description of our casualty heading down the middle of the Neuadd Valley, along the river itself. With such a strong sighting, the plan changed and the other two parties headed into the area indicated while my party headed back to Echo, who by this time had managed to come up the Roman Road and was parked up at the gap.
We stopped at Echo for some refreshments and set up some kit when the call came in – the casualty’d been located. We grabbed the kit and headed back along the bottom path for the second time and met up with some of the lads near to the casualty site. Getting the stretcher across proved interesting, but we managed it and the casualty was quickly packaged up ready to move. Once he was in the stretcher, we needed to lower him down to the river over a very steep bank, so with 6 men on the stretcher and one on a rope for assistance, we lowered him down to the river.
Friends may recognise our casualty from this picture, yes it was indeed none other than our very own , fortunately, as you can see from this picture, he was happy enough as he’d agreed to be our casualty for this exercise (either that, or we’ve given him a little too much morphine!).
Time was getting on a little, so we cut the exercise short there and headed back to the pump house for a cuppa, a debrief and then back to base to repack the kit. Jon seemed to have enjoyed himself…I think we may have a new recruit next year.
either that, or we’ve given him a little too much morphine!
It was good stuff, y’know … that and Sîan’s head massages 😉
w00t for Roman Roads, observant walkers & friendly ‘victims’.
Glad to hear a good day was had by all, & that you got him back ok!
Outside, head massages … if he got fed too I can’t imagine a much happier Jon.
Yes, I not only provided lunch, but also Cawl[1] both the night before and the night after, though I make it with beef stock instead of lamb.
He did indeed seem quite satisfied…
[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/ilo.....cawl.shtml
Happiest victim I’ve ever seen…obviously we need more morphine in lifeguarding. 😀
w00t for … observant walkers …
Yeah, it seems that the “observant walker” call went out after I radioed back to control with my grid ref … funny, that 🙂
Ah, yes, the exercise was dragging on a bit by then – we all wanted to be back by tea, so we invented a “passer-by” – which *does* occasionally happen.
I think Jon should join the team, I mean he enjoys it sooooo much! (it’s good to see he wasn’t wearing jeans out on the hill this time!!) Liked having Jon as a cas it meant that I had backup when YOU pick on me.. oh muffin.. LOL. 😛
Lyn. xx
You mean you had to tell them where you were before they could find you? Was the rain that bad? Poor boy!
The rain wasn’t bad – I certainly got wetter during the evacuation than I did waiting for them to find me. Nah, control just asked me to confirm my location, was all… I had chosen an awkward spot in which to hide, and being wrapped in a dark green bivvy bag wouldn’t have helped them either 🙂
-jdp
Ah yes, hence the Walkers Guide suggests that you take a brightly coloured item of clothing with you so that, should you get into difficulties, you can put it out/wear it/wave it to aid MR!
More to the point, it was dragging on a bit, and various wives were preparing supper… 🙂
Our exercise tend to start around 0900 and finish around 1600. This invariably means that an early find will be medically in horrendous trouble, and a late find prompts very simple injuries. *grin*
Yes, or a KISU tent aka Bothy Bag (that’s “Bothy” not “body”). Mine’s bright orange.
Jon of course was trying to hide from us, although to be honest, it’d have been difficult enough with an orange bivvy bag. He was using my gore-tex bivvy bag that I use for bodying with SARDA.
… but that would have made it easy, and we can’t have that now 😉
-jdp
it’s good to see he wasn’t wearing jeans out on the hill this time!!
I’d received Threats about what’d happen if I was wearing jeans… scary threats …
Liked having Jon as a cas it meant that I had backup when YOU pick on me
😀
(just beware … it’s a double-edged sword)
-jdp
Well, no. Not if it’s to be a real test of their search skills.
Though Aled seems to think that the colour of the badg wouldn’t have made that much difference. Certainly where you described hiding yrself sounded fairly invisible. You know, the kind of scenario which got ‘dramatised’ on the Michael Buerk Survivor (forgotten the name) series a while back.
“Man, out walking in the Welsh ‘mountains’ on a really thick day, fell down a stream gully, broke his ankle. MR called out, found him, eventually, five days later. Good thing he fell by a stream!”
Hmmmmm, time to get out the needles & start knitting hiking socks, perhaps? Woollen of course.