April 2006 Mountain Rescue News

Winter is still with us with most of the team managing to climb some great Scottish routes. Greag Mheagaidh on the Laggan road in between the Cairngorms and Ben Nevis is a major winter climbing ground. This majestic mountain hosts some of Scotland finest routes. These climbs have an Alpine feel to them and are a real test for the winter climber. In addition all the routes top out on the huge summit plateau, which in bad weather give considerable navigation practise to any mountaineer. The team had a great weekend climbing and managed two superb routes “The Wand and Pumpkin” two 1000 feet long routes of snow and ice, which 5 of the team managed to climb.

The team has been involved in 3 callouts all very different. The first involved 3 missing walkers all in there late sixties. They were on a 3-day walking holiday based in Ullapool in the North West Of Scotland. They had failed to return for their evening meal in the hotel where they were staying. The police were informed and they did as much as possible with limited resources, checking the local roads. The weather that day was very poor with a blizzard all over the area in late afternoon. Unfortunately they had not left a route. The Police requested assistance from the ARCC and R137 from Lossiemouth and the Kinloss MRT were tasked. The problem for the Police Search Control is where do you start a searching? the whole NW of Scotland? Very quickly local Coastguards near Achiltibue found the car and at least we had an area to search. The Dundonnell, Torridon, Mountain rescue teams and Coast Guards began a massive search and very soon the Coast Guards found the first missing man. He explained that his party had got caught in the blizzard late afternoon and got disorientated. He gave a rough idea where his friends were. They had all spent the night on the hill in extremely poor conditions. Next day they had split up and were extremely lucky to be all found safe and well by the Coastguard search teams and Rescue 137 from Lossiemouth. A great multi agency response and result.

Our next incident was one we all dread a missing child. Aberdeen Police requested the assistance of the team for an 8-year-old child who was missing overnight. The Search took place in the outskirts of Aberdeen. There was a huge response by the local police, R137 From Lossiemouth, Coast guards teams, Aberdeen, Breamar and Kinloss Mountain Rescue Teams took place. The search was very different from the normal mountain search and we had to look in some pretty grim places. Dangers were not the normal associated with mountains and at times had to watch as we searched through heavily wooded areas, some, which had discarded needles from drug users, scattered about. The troops as usual rose to the challenge and it was great news when the missing child was found safe and well. He had spent the night in a friend’s house! This was another steep learning curb for our newer team members.

The final callout this month was for an ice climber who fell on Aonach Mor near Fort William whilst ice-climbing. This was a tragic incident as the climber was killed and the RAF Kinloss team assisted the local Lochaber MRT in carrying off the casualty. During this rescue the team assisted two other climbers in difficulty in fairly serious avalanche conditions, plus another injured climber. This involved the team being involved in a long carry out to the Ski Tows. During this incident several new team members got a sudden introduction to the dangers and seriousness of mountaineering in winter.
We managed to say farewell to the Legend that is Dan Carrol after a great weekend at Kinlochewe near Torridon and managed to get a photo of Dan and all the team. Welcome to Flt Dave King from 42 Sqn Kinloss an experienced troop from down South. SAC Ben Thynne 15 Sqn Lossiemouth and SAC D Groom 14 Sqn Lossiemouth. The team has been gaining lots of new members recently and always needs more. If you fancy joining contact the team at Kinloss extn 6154 or 6151