Winter Rigging Course, March 2015, Cairngorms

Our Mountain Rescue Scotland winter rigging course started with myself, Ron and John getting picked up at TISO in Inverness by Jim and Em but instead of going to Carrbridge we went for a bit of sustenance in the form of a BK, probably as part of Emily’s nutritional training for the Celtman. We then headed to Carrbridge and were allocated our rooms. John and Em were given rooms with other MRT team members and Ron and I shared. At this point I realised I hadn’t packed my wet suit!

After a quick beer, the intro started, with Stuart; Bill, Andy and Jim explaining the plans for the weekend. Stuart gave a power point presentation on various types of snow anchors e.g. bollards, deadmen, stakes and also their strengths and load capabilities. From here we were split into 3 teams and given a rescue scenario where we had to work out the best way to evacuate a casualty with only a limited amount of gear, which was really interesting especially when afterwards we were told the scenarios were from real rescues. After this we were then forced into the bar to socialise.

Got up on the Saturday morning very tired due to Ron’s teeth grinding all night and beer intake but still glad my feet were dry, so every cloud…and after a good fry up we were taken to Coire na Ciste and like our last training day, were shown how to build snow bollards, place dead men and build bucket seats as well as hauling techniques at various stations across the hill-side.
Back at the hotel that night after dinner we were then shown by Andy ways to fit a bridal to a stretcher and Bill showed in great detail the uses and good tips about the Petzl ID. Then it was Guinness time.

Sunday morning, again quite tired due to the strong winds, this time from outside the hotel room and after another hearty breakfast we all went to Coire an Laoigh Mor to practice our lowering techniques. After a 45 min walk in we split into 2 teams and made our way up into shoulder of the corrie and practiced a single person lower then a single person lower with the stretcher, haul back up using a walking haul which wasn’t that great, then an arm over arm haul which worked much better. To finish we then conducted a multi pitch lower, which involved 2 change-overs. At this point the wind got really up and sent spindrift every-where but not enough to drown out Em’s infectious laughter. This involved 4 anchor points rigged into a BFK then an I.D was used with prussics to lower the stretcher to the next pitch and so on to level ground. The 1st pitch was quite slow in getting set up but each pitch thereafter got quicker and quicker as everyone got familiar with the set-up and threw themselves into it especially as Bill was hurrying us along. When this was finished we had a wee debrief with where Bill mentioned mostly good points but the odd bad point (note to self, never leave your ice axe at the pitch when you go to do a walking haul). We then had a nice walk back to the car park then back to the Cairngorm base to drop off their kit.

All in all this was a great course with very good instructors and brilliant company, Thanks Guys.

Graham Wilson