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placename:- KMRT Exercise 20090531
site name:- Snow Cove
site name:- Goat Scar
parish Longsleddale parish, once in Westmorland
county:- Cumbria
rocks; mountain rescue site
coordinates:- NY47680709
10Km square:- NY40
1Km square NY4707
photographs
KMRT Longsleddale, 31 May 2009.
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- As more of the team arrive with ropes and equipment it is possible to set up safety line round the Cas site. -- The climber is paying out rope from the bag on his back, the top end belayed to a rock above, taking the rock round close below the Cas site where it will be tethered again, providing a safety line to which anybody moving about the site can belay. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- Rope feeding through an abseil device, backed up by a prusic knot through which the rope slides easily unless there is a slip when it tightens. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- More equipment arriving, including the rescue stretcher in two pieces on back frames. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The team sweatshirt:- -- 'MOUNTAIN RESCUE COUNCIL ENGLAND AND WALES / KENDAL MOUNTAIN RESCUE TEAM' -- ... clearly identifying team members on the fell, and clearly visible. -- As more bodies arrive a person is designated to have overall control of the incident. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The safety line set up round the casualty site. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The two part stretcher, going up past the casualty site to an equipment site established a little above. The stretcher is a Bell stretcher designed and manufactured by a mountain rescue volunteer, Pete Bell. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The casualty monitored and comforted all the while. On one finger a pulse oximeter can just be seen. This measures the casualty's pulse and, by shining light through the fingernail, the oxygenation of her blood. (Sorry about the helmet decoration.) -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- Manoeuvring a body support round the casualty. This is a Kendrick extraction device, back brace, neck and head support. One team member supports the casualty's head all the time. If there were a c spine injury an injudcious movement could cause irreparable damage. Notice the belays for the casualty team on this steep and awkward slope. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The Communications man has made contact for the Cas carer with a doctor offsite; the casualty has a potential chest injury which is a contra indication for the use of morphine which depresses respiration. A doctor's advice is needed. Checks of drug allergies and current medication are also needed. The time and amount of drug administered are carefull recorded. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- While the casualty gets immediate first aid, other team members have set up a rope for lowering the stretcher, 150 metres of Main lower, belayed to rocks fed through an Alpine tube, and yet more are arranging the belay for a Safety lower which will be fed out through a prusic knot. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- ... the stretcher has been assembled. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- ... the Main lower laid out ready. -- Rope, carabiners, slings, and other gadgets are a constant in the whole rescue procedure, as is safety of team members moving about a very tricky site where grass is slippery and loose rocks easily sent off down hill. In the exercise rocks did escape, threatenning climbers below who were warned by a shout - the rock caught or deflected if possible. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- Belaying the Safety lower for the stretcher; the team member belayed to the rock where he is working. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- Carbiners, pulleys, slings. Pulleys might be needed to pull things back up if a lower gets caught. -- 31.5.2009
photographs
KMRT Longsleddale, 31 May 2009.
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- Moving the stretcher to the Cas site. The team members are working on grass on a steep slope. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- Moving the stretcher to the casualty site. The team members are working on grass on a steep slope. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The casualty is now held by the extraction device, and has a triangular bandage for the left arm ... The drip feed is nothing of the sort - refreshing Ribena, not blood. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The stretcher in position. Everybody is belayed safely. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The stretcher in position. On the stetcher is a vacuum mattress. This is a bag full of polystyrene beads which will mould round the casualty, the air is then pumped out with a hand pump, and the mattress becomes a rigid support. As many hands as can be are in position to help move the casualty onto the stretcher ... after making sure that the casualty knows what is going to be done. The move will be made in one, to reduce the risks to the casualty. -- A 'STOP' from the exercise leader. At this stage the exercise was halted. The risk of a real accident moving the casualty to the stretcher was not justifed for practice, you can practice this somewhere safe. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The body support comes, like everything else, in a bag. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The body support comes, like everything else, in a bag:- -- '... TELFORD EXTRACTION DEVICE ...' -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The casualty is strapped into the stretcher - now at the top of the gully which is the start of the route down (to where she walked!) -- The three first aiders lead by the Cas carer stay with the casualty throughout the lower. A team member, standing back but in radio contact, is designated to control the lower, decide the route, and so on. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The casualty is tightly coccooned in the casualty bag, the head protected by the frame at the top of the stretcher. ... ropes prepared ... -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- Slings attached to the stretcher for lifting and guiding; the Main lower takes the strain of lowering. One team member is designated Barrow boy, attached to the Main lower, stationed below the stretcher to keep it off the rock face and to guide it down. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- Starting down. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The giant carabiner is an Alpine tube, itself belayed from above, which helps control paying out the Main lower by the friction in the two turns. Gloves are essential when dealing with moving rope. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- Lowering; the stretcher is held by the Main lower arranged with the route in mind, and a Safety lower. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- ... out of the gully onto a grassy slope ... -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The base, 500 feet below where a groundman is in radio contact with the team on the fell. One Land Rover ambulance is fitted to take the stretcher. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- ... lowering -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- ... lowering -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- ... lowering -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The original plan for lowering assumed that rope would run out about here. A second set of belays have been set up on rocks so that the lower could proceed. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- In fact the lower from the rocks above the casualty site was continued to where the stretcher could be carried - with 1 metre of rope remaining. 150 metres of rope is a lot, it's also quite heavy to carry up the fell. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- ... lowering -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- Carrying the stretcher the last yards, through a gate, over the River Sprint, to base. -- 31.5.2009
photographs
KMRT Longsleddale, 31 May 2009.
I am grateful to all of Kendal Mountain Rescue for letting me follow them on this exercise, to Dave for keeping me safe, and to John for telling me about what went on.
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- All the equipment has to be put away. -- The team member in red is roughly at the casualty site. The man on the rock above is taking down one of the belays. Getting the casualty to safety is the first priority, but equipment has to be readied for the next, real, call out. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- Dissembling the stretcher -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- Everything comes in bags; this bag is full of radio units. The blue bag belongs with Mobile 2. The team's vehicles are colour coded; mobile 1 red, Mobile 2 blue, Mobile 3 yellow. Nearly all equipment is coloured coded to show where it should be stored - and ready. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- Packing a shorter rope into its carry bag, yellow for Mobile 3. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- Packing a shorter rope into its carry bag, red for Mobile 1. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- Climbing harness, carabiners, slings, ... -- 31.5.2009
photographs
Kendal Mountain Rescue Team, KMRT: rescue exercise based at Snow Cove, on the north side of Goat Scar, Longsleddale, 31 May 2009.
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The team at base sorting out who immediately is going to do what. At this stage the rescue has to be handled with whoever has responded to the call out. Information is limited; someone has been seen to fall high up on the side of Goat Scar. A first aid team is selected to be followed by a group with crag gear, ropes, etc. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The rescue site, roughly at the right of the dark grey rocks of Goat Scar, at the top of Snowcove Gill. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The first three to set off have first aid medical supplies as well as essential ropes etc, and a designated communications person. -- The Medisac, Resus bag, and Entonox bag are kept secure in their vehicle by a locked strap whose key is attached to the more securely held drugs in an onboard safe - to take the bags you remember to get the drugs. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The first aid group beginning the climb to the casualty site. The red bag on the left is the Medisac, splints, bandages, dressings, drugs like morphine, adrenalin, and so on; the blue bag is the Resus bag, a defribrilator, oxygen cylinder which is lightweight carbon fibre nowadays, and airways to assist breathing; the red bag on the right is the Entonox bag, a cylinder of mixed oxygen and a painkiller, nitrous oxide. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The casualty: reported to have slipped off a crag into a niche in the crags at the north side of Goat Scar, bottom of Snow Cove. -- A 12 foot tumble. Possibly spinal injury, pain when breathing, bruising high on the nearside mid ribs, quick pulse, quick breathing, shaking. The casualty has been belayed to a safety sling round the rock above. -- The first aid team have contacted base with a request for rope and crag gear, already on its way, and a stretcher. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The team member on the left is the Cas carer, in charge of the casualty, interviewing her to discover her condition and so on. The second member is supporting her head in case of a c spine, cervical spine, injury. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- Oxygen: this is an exercise and the oxygen mask was plonked on the casulaties helmet - looking a little silly in some pictures! -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The Communications man doubling up as Scribe, keeping notes of the casualties state and actions taken. Notes are made on a standard form which was designed by the Mountain Rescue Council. The form acts as a prompt to gather and record relevant information, part of which is the ABCDE check - airway, breathing, circulation, disability, environment. The formality means the team are prompted and guided clearly in a stressful situation, reducing the possibility of forgetting to do something essential. -- There were too few people on site to have a designated Cas site manager who would step back from action and manage the incident. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The Communications keeping the ground man at base informed of progress, and requesting particular equipment. The radio mikes are fitted with a gps receiver which relays the position of the radio unit, and presumably its user, to base, where it is displayed on a map on a computer screen. In difficult situations a team member can be guided to a casualty site from base. The computer keeps a log of movements which is valuable in an inquiry. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- Ropes and climbing equipment, all in bags, arriving with the next group of the team. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- ... rope and climbing equipment ... -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The equipment is taken up past the casualty site to a flat area just above where ropes to lower a stretcher can be arranged, using firm rocks as belays. -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- 31.5.2009
tiny photograph, button to large KMRT Exercise 20090531 -- Snow Cove -- Goat Scar -- Longsleddale -- Cumbria / -- The Communications man is looking after the Medisac, open in front of him. Notice the defibrillator and Resus bag behind. -- 31.5.2009
Old Cumbria Gazetteer - JandMN: 2008
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