Today at an early hour a small number of team members journeyed to Bibbys Farm, Limbrick, the campsite of the Bolton Scout Trust, to provide the kit checking team for the 06:00hrs start of this year’s Pike View Hike, celebrating fourteen years of this successful and ever larger by the year Scout challenge event.

The Pike View Hike is an annual one day long hill walking and navigation challenge walk of varying lengths, depending on age and ability for Scout Association teams aged between 8-18 years old from all around the country, based upon the western part of the West Pennine Moors, principally the Rivington, Belmont and Limbrick areas.

Routes vary tremendously with regards to terrain, with the weather this year being unseasonably cold and somewhat challenging.

The event organising group is drawn mainly from experienced Scout Leaders in the Bolton South Scout District, including Bolton MRT team members Steve Fletcher and Mike Marsh, who were also on hand throughout the day alongside a total of nine other team call out list members.

From the eight members present for the early morning kit checks, four stayed on (Equipment Officer – Stretchers and Ropes Nigel Booth, Equipment Officer – Catering and Base Paul Copley, Tony Dawson and John Dickinson) in our Team Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulance BM1, providing immediate on hand standby rescue cover. (Those present for just the kit checks were Trainee Heath Doran, Phil Horner, Trainee Gary Melia and Our Treasurer Martin Banks). Team member Paul Brain was present to assist with the event organisation.

During the course of this event, the team responded to a small number of minor requests to assist the keen participants. (This is mentioned here for information only and does feature in our incident listings)