We are proud to announce once again that senior Bolton MRT team member Mike Marsh has had the honour of organising and coordinating the Mountain Rescue England & Wales National Party Leader’s Course. Mike has been associated with this course, and its predecessor, the MPSRO Regional Party Leader’s Course for a number of years now, and has developed from an instructor to full organiser.

This year a new venue for the course was found at the excellent location of Hebden Hey Scout Campsite, at Hebden Bridge in the Calder Valley area of the South Pennines, over the course of a full weekend. The course aims to fully equip Mountain Rescue team members (who have a minimum of two year’s M.R. experience) with the requisite skills to lead Mountain Rescue search parties on operations.

The course always receives very favourable comments from those who participate, with the 34 delegates this year attending from England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland and Scotland. In addition to the delegates 12 instructors attended, coming from English and Welsh teams, and also from Dublin Wicklow MRT. The final instructor to arrive on site did so at 02:30 on Saturday morning, and they weren’t surprised to see a contingent of the course returning from the pub at the same time – which might give you some idea as to the size of some hangovers the following morning!

Representing MR England & Wales were Dr. Tony Jones MBE (Vice Chair) and Peter Smith (Honorary Secretary) – Peter, like Mike, has had a long standing association with the Party Leader’s course at both a Regional (MPSRO) and National level.

As is typical in MR work, the weekend gave highly favourable weather conditions for the indoor sessions on Saturday, and of course a soggy, wet Sunday for the outdoor sessions!

Despite being cancelled last year due to lack of numbers, this year’s course was fully subscribed and was well received by all.