Over the past two days, team members Mike Marsh and Paul Brain, both experienced Search Managers, travelled to Smelt Mill in the Trough of Bowland, the operational base/HQ of our neighbouring Bowland Pennine Mountain Rescue Team.  Bolton and Bowland Pennine together with other members of the Mid-Pennine Search and Rescue Organisation (MPSRO), from Calder Valley Search & Rescue Team, Rossendale & Pendle Mountain Rescue Team and Holme Valley Mountain Rescue Team, were all at Smelt Mill to receive training in the new Mapyx MX SARMAN software .

SARMAN is a search management module which acts as a plugin on the Mapyx versatile Quo mapping software, and is provided to all Mountain Rescue teams in England and Wales.

Bolton MRT have been using Quo and the original version of SARMAN since 2010, MX SARMAN builds on the success of the original, and builds on the continuing maturity (and prevalence) of technological advances, and adds a multi-user version where more than one search manager can add information simultaneously from different machines.

The course was facilitated by Steven Wood and Shaun Cronin of Mapyx who have an understanding of Search Management, both within Mountain Rescue and the Police.

Mike and Paul found the training informative, and the improvements beneficial to assist in future Search operations. One advantage of all MPSRO teams getting trained together will become apparent at the next multi-agency search we conduct, where all teams will have the same understanding of the capabilities of the software.

Mike and Paul would like to thank Steven and Shaun from Mapyx for the training and Bowland Pennine Mountain Rescue Team, in particular Iain Nicholson of Bowland Pennine MRT for organising and hosting the training weekend.

Thank you also to Alison Nicholson for providing the catering for the weekend. Message to the catering team at our own Foundation Course, the bar has been raised!