The training programme didn't concentrate on rock climbing to the detriment of other aspects of mountain rescue. Lees knew that men must be competent on rock for the more difficult cliff rescues and searches, but he laid considerable emphasis on general fitness and endurance: the qualities needed for a protracted search in bad weather over exposed and featureless ground. Navigational exercises, particularly at night, and often under bad conditions, were held frequently.

When the men could abseil, could climb competently and hold a load, they were taught to lower a stretcher, first down small crags, and then down something like the line of the Direct Route on Glyder Fach or the 600-foot east face of Tryfan.

The most effective way of teaching them to withstand a shock load was to simulate a falling leader. The trainee would be roped and belayed. A sack containing a hundredweight or more of turf and stones would be tied to the other end of his rope and thrown off the cliff from some distance above him. Below, there would be a clear fall so that he would have to stand the full and immediate shock without the sack bouncing on ledges.

These demonstrations were a revelation. It was astonishing that, however carefully we planted our feet and settled ourselves on the stance, everyone (except Lees) was thrown off-balance the first time, although few let go - and equally astonishing the second time when everyone absorbed the shock with just the right amount of flexibility in the body and give in the rope. In the 'sliding arrest' the rope is allowed to run some distance (about a third of the run-out) in the event of a fall. Most people who haven't had the experience of holding a falling leader say that this is impossible: a man will either tighten his grip and stop the fall too quickly (thus shock-loading the rope) or let all the rope go.

Far from its being impossible to let out the correct amount of rope, practical experience shows that one's judgement is instinctively correct, even if knocked off-balance from a poor stance. Thick leather gloves with long gauntlets are worn on these exercises which may account for the ability to concentrate on the rope and to forget the possibility that one's hands may be burned to the bone. Round about this time we started wearing gloves for all climbs above the standard of Severe. Not only as the result of sack-throwing experiences but because of the number and nature of burns we saw after accidents.

A good team depends on a good N.C.O. It isn't essential that he should be a good rock climber, but it is better for prestige if he, and not another member of the team, is the man to undertake the most difficult jobs on cliff rescues. In any event, the N.C.O. must be a competent mountaineer, and in 1952 there were very few of these. It was decided to recruit potential leaders from the Physical Fitness branch. A course was scheduled to start in November 1952 and to continue for at least three months. The men would be trained in every branch of mountain rescue, including administration.

Seven pupils started this first Team Leaders' course, with Lees as the instructor. It was held, for the first part, in Wales, and if any thought that November conditions in Snowdonia would not be a fitting test for potential team leaders, they were soon proved wrong. On their first day it was bitterly cold with a string wind. Lees took then up into Cwm Idwal and the Devil's Kitchen, and very soon it began to snow. In the ensuing blizzard they were forced to use compasses to get back to the road. Continue to Page 10