Q.  What kind of gear does an MR team have?

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A.  Each hillgoing member of a MRT will have sufficent gear for themselves for their time on the hill. Team requirements vary but spare food, clothes, batteries, a torch, a night shelter, personal first aid kit will all have to be carried. Team gear will have to be added to that. A party will carry one or two radios, spare batteries, first aid material such as splints, a group shelter etc. These will be shared out among the party. Ropes, analgesic gases, climbing hardware and a stretcher may also have to be carried up the hill to the casualty site.

Most teams now have at least one vehicle. These are often  ambulances or minibuses converted to form mobile bases and equipment carriers. Team transports, often Landrovers, are used to bring party members along forest tracks closer to the casualty site.

Q: What happens when a MRT is called-out?

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A.  When a team is alerted by the Gardai or PSNI, the senior member taking the call gets the basic details and then puts the team on stand-by or call-out depending on the urgency of the situation. Stand-by is where the team get ready to go while call-out means that they leave their home or work immediately.

The Call-out officer (senior member taking the call) will consider an immediate strategy. The urgency of the situation will be an important factor in the response.

Rescue of a casualty from a known location will require a different response from a search. Different tactics will be used. A rescue requires 'Location, Assessment (of casualty status), Treatment and Evacuation' while search calls for 'Containment, Hasty Teams, Investigation and Planning'. Containment is where roads and tracks around a search area are patrolled to try to attract the lost person. The further a lost person wanders the more area has to be searched. Hasty Teams are small teams of MR personnel sent to the most obvious places. Investigation is work carried out by team members to try to understand why the person has gone missing and where they are most likely to be. Many searches go into a third or even fourth day and planning is vital, especially in the event of a major public volunteer response. Search Management is a taught skill now nearing a professional level in several teams. It relies not only on local knowledge, skilled searchers but also on statistical data which gives indications on how various types of missing person will behave. A missing child will behave very differently from an experienced hill walker.

The Call-out officer will set an RV (place for the team to meet) and time. All those team members who can attend will head for there (a call out typically will have 60% of the team attending) having made quick arrangements re: work and home commitments.

Having met, the team will arrive at the scene of the incident. Several things have to be done together at this time. Base, typically in a modified van, will have to be set up. Aerials may have to be erected. Team members will be collecting team gear to add to their rucksacks. This could include ropes, climbing hardware, first aid equipment. Party leaders will be briefed by the Team Leader. Party navigators will be checking their maps to find the best way in to their search area. Party radio holders will be testing their sets. Within a short time the parties are gone onto the hill. Other members arriving later are also sent up the hill with more equipment or held at base to form a reserve or to help in base. The Team Leader will be talking to the senior Garda officer in charge of the incident or to the senior member of other emergency services who have also been requested by the Gardai to help.

There may then be a lull while the parties on the hill are searching or providing first aid to the casualty. A Coastguard helicopter may be in the air bringing parties up the hill or evacuating the casualty. Base may also have to arrange for an ambulance to meet the parties coming down from the hill with the casualty.

When the casualty has been evacuated and all the team members are down, the team is stood down and all go home. Before they go to sleep however (operations often end in the small hours),  gear and vehicles have to be made ready for the next call, personal gear and boots dried and work/family commitments dealt with.

Q.  What kind of incidents do teams get called out to?

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A.  Mountain Rescue teams deal primarily with incidents in the mountains and in wilderness terrain (woods, waste land etc). On the hills they can deal with those who are lost or injured. Until the arrival of the mobile phone, most searches for those lost on the hills were from those expecting them down or at home. These calls often came about 9 pm on a Sunday evening when there was no sign of the relative returning home. More often today, the person themselves rings for help realising that they need help. In some cases the teams talk the person down, in other cases the team has to be called out to find the person.

While mobile phones may (if reception is good) make it easy to get help, they do not tell you where you are or keep you warm or feed you. Anyone going onto the hills should have a map and compass (and know how to use them), good clothing, good boots and spare food. A GPS (global positioning system) is only useful if you know how to use it and have spare batteries. It does not replace the basic requirements of a map and compass.

Mountain Rescue teams do not, as a rule, make any comment on those actions of those they help. Their members all had to learn hill craft in the past but the numbers of people in the hills without basic gear, especially on the so-called 'tourist routes' up major mountains does give cause for concern. It is possible to experience several types of weather in the one day on the Irish hills and this needs to be taken into account. It is also important to remember that most routes in the hills are completely unmarked and that a track can lead anywhere.

More serious incidents can arise from a medical emergency such as cardiac arrest or other illness or from a fall. Lower leg injuries are common and these are generally not life-threatening. More serious injuries do occur however in falls and these can be fatal.

Because of their skills in Search Management and Field Search several of the MR teams have, on occasion, assisted in major lowland searches.

Q. Who provides the mountain rescue service?

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