The team has been involved in recent years with providing senior instructor staff and exercise casualties and other resources to this nationally available, well respected, MR course.
The national party leader’s course is very largely based upon, and has its origins in, the long running MPSRO Party Leader courses, again in which our team had great involvement.
This year’s course was organised by Bolton MRT team member Mike Marsh who has considerable experience at both a regional and national level on this course. Mike has also instructed and advised over a number of years on the Irish Mountain Rescue Assocication (IMRA) Party Leader’s course.
This weekend course was held at the excellent venue of Rishworth School, Ripponden, and was supported by the local team, Calder Valley SRT, by way of vehicles and resources.
The weekend, running to an excellent programme organised by Mike Marsh and his instructor team, provided an overview of Party Leadership skills and management by way of lectures followed up by practical field work exercises.
27 students attended from the following Mountain Rescue teams, all of whom benefitted from contributing their individual experiences to a common format of approach.
- From England:
- Dartmoor Rescue Group (Ashburton)
- Dartmoor Rescue Group (North Dartmoor)
- Exmoor MRT
- Teesdale & Weardale MRT
- Bolton MRT
- Rossendale & Pendle MRT
- From Wales:
- North-East Wales SART
- Longtown MRT
- From the Republic of Ireland:
- South East MRA
- Dublin Wicklow MRT
- From Scotland:
- Tweed Valley MRT
- Tayside MRT
- Borders SAR Unit
The instructors cadre, led our Mike Marsh, consisted of Bolton MRT members Chris Moody and Ann Shaw, and members from the following MRT’s:
- Calder Valley SRT
- North-East Wales SART
- Llanberis MRT
- Penrith MRT (Ged Feeney, team leader and MR-E&W National Incidents Statistics Officer)
Our three students on the course were experienced team members, Steve Fletcher (aged 24) who joined the team in February 2001, Iain Peel (aged 29) who joined the team in October 1997, and Mark Scott (aged 47) who joined the team in April 2002.
All three team members who took part are now able build upon this weekend course with the practical experience of leading groups on search & rescue operations within the Bolton team.
All three members greatly enjoyed the course, and the professionalism of the instructing staff who were helpful at all stages of the weekend.
