Page 48 - 2019 AMA Summer

MISCARTICLE
LIFE OF MRT PROBATIONER
By Ross MacIntyre
“It’s a boy!” On a wild winters night in 1983 there was one significant member missing from my arrival into this world, my father. I wasn’t due to be born for another few weeks, the callout had come earlier in the day, someone in trouble needing help, why wouldn’t he go..
Mountain rescue has been in my blood since that first day of my existence. Many family photos of birthdays, weddings, parties all lacking one familiar figure. This was offset by the wonderful experiences, climbing, hill walking, skiing from when I could barely walk. I was brought up in the mountains, sometimes sworn to secrecy, apparently my mother didn’t need to know about that route or that epic that her 10 year old had just completed. Following in my father’s footsteps was inevitable.
Education, work and then a family pushed this ambition further from view, although still passionate about the mountains with small children, the time required to devote to MR was beyond what I had to offer.
Fast forward a decade or two and I’m standing in the car park about to go for a “walk” with the team to be assessed as a potential new trainee member. I’d say I was quite a level-headed person, I don’t get stressed easily however my palms were sweating, the self-made pressure was getting to me. Once out on the hill I started to relax this wasn’t about showing off my skills as a mountaineer, this was an assessment of how I would fit into and work with the team.
Mountain rescue is all about this team spirit, who do you want alongside you in a tough situation, when things are getting really serious, the potential difference between life and death?
A week or so later I was invited to join the team as a trainee member, this means
that while able to attend all training events, talks, fundraising actives the trainee member is not on the “callout list”. I was lucky, there were two of us from my village accepted that year, this would prove to be beneficial to both of us, both having the required skills for the team but each finding that the other was slightly more experienced in certain areas and we could advise and coach each other.
The year spent as a trainee was eye opening, the dedication from the whole team to help people in need was apparent from day one. Training in a MR team is not what people may expect, teams do not train people how to be safe and competent mountaineers, this a pre-req- uisite. Team training is all about the skills
over and above the ones that we already have and is very varied ranging from additional medical training (over and above each trainee already held first aid certificate) to search techniques, off road driving, rescue rope work and working with helicopters. Sometimes it was mentally draining, how am I going to remember all of this information! This is where the team work becomes even more apparent, everyone is happy to answer even the daftest of questions, spending their own time going over a subject, this has stayed with me and I ensure I’m always available to help newer team members now.
The year flew past, the highlights included a Summer and Winter training weekend where the social side of the team was the
48 / ARMY MOUNTAINEER