Braving the elements to save lives in a hostile environment (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Braving the elements to save lives in a hostile environment

11:45am Friday 5th February 2010

• Print
• Email
• Share

Will Roberts reports on the life-saving work of the Teesdale and Weardale Search and Mountain Rescue Team.

IN THE early years, they were a ramshackle-looking bunch. A colourful mismatch of woollen bobble hats and well-worn waterproofs, but what the Upper Teesdale and Weardale Fell Rescue Team, as it was called back then, lacked in uniformed, corporate presence, they made up for in determination.

There are tales of team members using gates as makeshift stretchers and fashioning splints for broken legs out of fence posts.

“We just had a few bits of old equipment which had seen better days – most of it exmilitary stuff,” said Des Toward, a rescue team veteran of almost 31 years. “It’s unrecognisable now.”

It certainly is. The team, now called Teesdale and Weardale Search and Mountain Rescue Team, is officially a volunteers’ group, but is professional in every other sense.

The spectrum of waterproofs and winter wear may have been exchanged for smartlooking branded jackets and top-of-the-range equipment, but the levels of devotion have been the same since the group was set up in the late 1960s.

Fell rescue teams were being established up and down the country, but it took a tragedy to act as a catalyst to launch the team in the Durham dales.

In March 1968, a group of friends were fell walking in Upper Teesdale near Cauldron Snout. A thick mist, combined with wind, rain and snow, meant the friends had been unable to find their way back to safety.

While trying to cross Maize Beck, one young man slipped and fell, drowning in the high, fast-flowing waters.

With the nearest house more than three-and-a-half hours walk away, the group was in big trouble. A specialist team from Durham were called in to help them out and, after a search of the area, they were eventually found. Sadly, another man, who had become separated from the group, was found dead the next day.

Three months later, at the High Force Hotel, near Middleton in Teesdale, a public meeting about setting up a fell rescue team was held.

Two months after that, the group was officially formed.

Today, the group’s name doesn’t do justice to the work the 50 or so volunteers and the half-dozen dogs spend hours and hours a month doing. Their work is no longer limited to Teesdale and Weardale – they help out across the North of England.

This was never better illustrated than during the recent snowy weather. At its peak, the team had a 4x4 car loaded with two members ready to deploy for 24 hours a day.

They helped transfer patients on Teesside, rescued a stranded ambulance in Teesdale and were one of the first on the scene of a fatal accident on the A1 in North Yorkshire.

They took vital supplies to an animal sanctuary and later searched for a missing fisherman off the coast at Blackhall, east of Durham.

Gruelling eight-hour shifts were fitted in between the volunteers’ full-time jobs as teachers, carpenters, shopowners and firemen. While most of us could come back from work and complain about the roads and the weather from the comfort of our warm living rooms, members of the team had to put their jackets back on and brave the cold.

The melting snow signalled the end of the team’s busiest period for years. At the end of 2009, they were called to Cumbria to assist emergency services coping with the flooding.

For many, it was the most challenging call the team had been on, according to member Paul Renwick.

“The situation in Cumbria was unknown in most areas and the team members found themselves in the very middle of a major incident, dealing with a range of things in a really difficult environment,” said Mr Renwick.

Now, the emergency services rely on the team for its manpower, experience and expertise.

“We do everything that the emergency services can’t do,” said Mr Renwick.

The team is often faced with challenges over and above helping a rambler with a sprained ankle – it’s quite often physically and mentally draining. In 2006, as part of the biggest search operation for a decade, the team was the first to come across the body of 40-year-old Michael Bell, who was found hanging in woods about 15 miles from his Barnard Castle home.

“We tell people from the start that if they are just interested in climbing around on rocks, then this isn’t for them, because at times it can be a really difficult thing to do,” said Chris Roberts, deputy leader of the team.

The team has produced a book, called 40 Years and Counting. It was actually 40 back in 2008, but you can’t blame it for being two years late, it has been fairly busy.

The book is full of history, members’ stories, recommended walks and hints and tips to stay safe while out in the region’s countryside.

It s hoped that sales from the book will boost funds which go towards the team’s running expenses. It costs about £20,000 a year just to keep the team ticking over, but more fundraising is needed to pay for extra training and equipment.

“For everything we do, there needs to be even more time spent shaking buckets in supermarkets,” said Mr Roberts.

“It’s something we didn’t necessarily join up to do, but it is an essential part of keeping the team going.”

The book costs £9.99 and is on sale at Cotswold Outdoor Shop, in Durham City, or via the team’s website at twsmrt.org.uk.

• Print
• Email
• Share