Published at 09:00, Saturday, 17 January 2009

The mountains of Cumbria are one of its greatest assets – and one of its greatest dangers. Every year hundreds of people venture onto the county’s fells and rocks, and even those who are well-equipped and experienced can sometimes get into serious difficulties. Our landscape may be picturesque, but it is also responsible for many deaths and countless injuries.Like most highly trained members of the emergency services, the rescuers will react automatically in whatever situation they have to deal with. In the most distressing incidents they will often talk it over with one another afterwards, to get it out of their systems. “It’s a kind of group-therapy,” Kaz said.

Helping paws: Penrith Mountain Rescue member Kaz Frith with Dottie

But for the past half century climbers in the northern Lakes have been protected by a small band of volunteers.

The 36 members of Penrith Mountain Rescue Team are unpaid rescuers who make themselves available 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year, to go to the aid of those in trouble on the mountains.

The team receives no Government funding and has to raise more than £20,000 a year to cover its costs. But since it was founded in March 1959 it has been called out to more than 700 incidents and saved many lives. Last year was their busiest ever, when they answered 62 emergency calls.

Those calls were not just within the Penrith area. Penrith Mountain Rescue covers an area of 965 square miles, stretching from the Scottish border as far south as Haweswater, and from the county’s boundary with Northumberland to its boundary with the Solway Firth. It has also often helped teams further afield.

Nor is it just mountain rescue any more. Its has assisted at accidents and other emergencies, such as Carlisle’s floods in January 2005 and the Grayrigg train crash in February 2007.

Members of the team range in age from 26 to 72 and come from all walks of life, with doctors, teachers, builders and former police officers among them.

For half of its 50-year history it has been led by Ged Feeney. When police receive a 999 call from climbers in trouble, it is Ged, as team leader, that they contact. It is then his job to alert the rescuers – who each carry pagers to ensure they can always be reached.

How long it takes to get to the victims can depend on where in the mountains they are, but within five to seven minutes of the 999 call some of the group will be at the base in Penrith, ready to set off in their Land Rovers.

Ged, who is now 59, had been a rugby player as well as a mountaineer when he first joined 30 years ago.

He explained: “I was giving up the rugby so I wanted to broaden my experience in mountaineering. So a friend of mine, Steve Barber suggested I come along and join in.”

He was elected deputy team leader and then team leader in 1984, but plans to step down from this role, while remaining a member of the group, in October.

Ged said saving lives and rescuing the lost and injured brings tremendous job satisfaction, But inevitably they also encounter tragedies, and for him the saddest occasion was recovering the body of a man in his early 20s who had fallen 120 feet down a disused mine shaft on Cross Fell.

“At the time there were a lot of old mines in the area that hadn’t been made safe,” he said. “This one couldn’t be seen because it was covered in a fall of snow, and the lad fell to his death.”

Sometimes an element of black humour can lighten the burden a little. On another occasion Ged recalls, they had to recover the body of a student who had died on Harrop Pike. As they returned with the body, all in low spirits, a thunderstorm began.

“We were halfway across a wire fence and as lightning flashed someone shouted: ‘Throw the switch, Igor.’”

Ged is a former maths teacher and now works as an IT consultant for schools. For team member Kaz Frith however, the outdoors is already part of her job.

Kaz, 43, is chief executive of the Institute for Outdoor Learning, the professional body for outdoor instructors. She is originally from Kent but moved to Cumbria eight years ago and joined the team soon afterwards.

Kaz said: “I used to be a volunteer lifeguard on beaches on the south coast, so I’ve always felt I wanted to put something back. When I moved up here this was the equivalent.”

Like Ged, Kaz says the work can be both rewarding and heartbreaking: “We get a lot of call-outs to people who are tired on the way down and have tripped or slipped. We make them comfortable and secure, and you get a buzz out of that.

“But some people have never seen a dead body before they join, and that can be difficult. The injuries from falling on rocks can be quite horrific.”

Call-outs to suicidal people on the mountains were on the increase, she added. “We do get asked more to help the police find people who are going to self-harm. You go out in the knowledge that you might see someone hanging.”

Thankfully, however, most call-outs are not so serious. Often they are to help inexperienced climbers.

“You see people who lack an understanding of how bad the weather in the North Lakes can be. We sometimes look in disbelief at people wearing T-shirts.

“But we are not there to judge people. We will go to everyone, and we don’t sit and tell anyone off.

“Part of our role is to educate the public, and afterwards we might gently say: ‘Perhaps it would be better next time if you did this or that.’ But the situation they have got in is often enough of a learning experience.”

Being on call 24 hours a day every day can put a pressure on family and work life, but Kaz’s partner Daryl Garfield is also a team member and she said: “Most of us work full-time but we have employers who allow us to take part.”

One member who does not need to seek any permission from an employer – because he is retired – is 72-year-old Keith Smith. Keith is the team’s oldest member and also its longest serving, having joined 42 years ago at the age of 30.

Keith is originally from York, but first developed an interest in mountain rescue aged 17, when he helped in a rescue while visiting the Cairngorms.

So when his job with the Ministry of Agriculture took him to Penrith he decided to get involved again.

“I didn’t live near any mountains in the north-east,” Keith explained. “But when I ended up working in this area that got me interested again.

“I like going out into the hills whenever possible, and if you can do it with a bit of a purpose that makes it even more worthwhile.”

In his 42 years on the team he has seen many changes. One in particular is the increase in expensive, high-tech equipment.

“In the days when I started, the equipment was all kept under the team leader’s bed in a cardboard box. Now we have computer mapping, satellite phones, two Land Rovers and a mobile control centre in a converted van.

“All our money comes from donations, and it costs more than £20,000 every year just to stand still.”

The team’s remit has also changed, and reaches beyond the mountains.

“We helped the emergency services during the floods and the Grayrigg train crash, and in incidents where military planes have crashed.

“We’ve also helped when people with dementia go missing from old folks’ homes. The urban work is increasing.”

Though demanding and sometimes distressing, Keith added that it could be very rewarding.

“If I didn’t enjoy it I wouldn’t have been doing it for so long!” he said.

“I’ll stay involved as long as possible.”

SBlease@cngroup.co.uk

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk