A Useful Guide To Mountain Rescue Training For Volunteers

By Gary Hughes


Engaging in mountain climbing and skiing requires people who are daring enough to risk facing the dangers that come treacherous terrain. Falls are common accidents in such activities but one unpredictable factor is; the adverse weather conditions that worsen as one climbs. Volunteers who are interested in mountain rescue training must be up to the task to handle the challenges that come with this job.

Before you can enlist to be part of a search rescue team, it important to know what you are getting yourself into. This is not a paid job, at least not for volunteers. As a volunteer, you will offer yourself to be trained on how to save lives in treacherous terrain and adverse weather conditions. It means that you have to have another source of income to support yourself and family. It may also require you to relocate depending on where the team you are joining is based.

Physical fitness is key for you to join a rescue team. This because the work involved is physically challenging in nature. You need to build endurance during your training to help face any challenge that may come your way. If you wish to be a rescuer, take time and exercise. This will give you an edge during the selection process.

Aspiring rescuers also need to invest in mountaineering skills. What makes a good rescuer is to first know their way up and down tough terrain of mountains. They can predict accurately the best routes to follow. To build on the skills, you take classes with a private organization or join a hill climbing club. Your passion for these activities must be real and not imagined for you to become a good rescuer.

Special training on first aid is key. This covers a wide range of conditions. For instance, handling fresh wounds, broken bones, spine injuries, cold injuries, just to mention a few. You really can never predict what injuries someone could sustain in a mountain terrain. The team must be educated on all possible situations they may have to face with every distress call they receive.

Both theory and practical lessons are necessary to impart knowledge to new recruits. One of the common practices is to use the experiences of the past to highlight difficult challenges on the field and how to tackle them. Teams can also analyze mistakes done in previous operations and learn key facts that help them improve the way they work.

Accidents do not discriminate rescuers. They too come face to face with the fury of Mother Nature. Reports of crashes rescue helicopters are not new to the world. Other times rescuers suffer fatal falls from cliffs. In such cases, the rescuers must do their best to survive in harsh conditions.

As a rescue team, when one of you is down, you need to communicate to the command center to send reinforcement. The way you do it has to be clear and to the point. On the challenges of communicating in such a terrain is that the equipment often fails. You cannot get a good signal to send a distress call. In such a situation, whoever is sent to reinforce the team must devise other methods like using sniffer dogs to trace the team.




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