Mountain Rescue teams can only be called on the authority of the police. A call is normally initiated by the local force in response to a 999 call or the report of a missing person.

The team can be (and is) called out at any time of day or night, under any conditions, even on New Year's Day and Christmas Day as happened in 2000. That year saw a total of 49 callouts, a stark contrast to 2001, when the effects of Foot and Mouth Disease led to the closure of the hills and other walking areas. The police control alert the co-ordinators by team pager or telephone. The co-ordinator will first alert the team by means of an "I will respond – (name)" message to all team pagers. That is the signal for things to start moving, The co-ordinator will then discuss the details of the incident with the police then decide where to rendezvous and what other resources (eg other teams, dogs, helicopters etc) should be called. An initial search plan will be developed while the team is moving to the RV. How do we know where to look? A combination of looking for clues, such as a route card or an abandoned car, research into how and where different types of people are found, combined with years of experience, will help form the search plan.

2007 has been the busiest year to date with 67 callouts totalling 2,882 man hours from brecon team alone.

In South Wales we always call the adjacent team in for a search, and for an evacuation from a known location, we use the Area Call System, which alerts everyone in the South Wales area to assist with an evacuation.

Details of our more recent incidents and a summary of past statistics can be found by navigating to the relevant pages using the links to the left.

 

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