Team members in action. Photo: Western Beacons MSRT
Volunteers from a south Wales mountain rescue team will carry a stretcher over a 50km route to mark their 50th anniversary.
The June challenge, which will take place across the Brecon Beacons, is just one of a series of events that kick off today with a public advice session at the GO Outdoors store in Swansea.
The Western Beacons Mountain Search and Rescue Team will also throw a party for present and past members in September and will host the annual joint exercise for mountain and cave rescue teams in south Wales the same month.
The team will also have a presence at the Banff Mountain Film Festival when it tours across south Wales in March.
The half-century celebrations will also be used to launch and appeal for cash for a new command vehicle, vital in co-ordinating its rescue missions. Its 50 for 50 campaign has been set up to raise £50,000 for the new vehicle.
The organisation formed in in 1964 as the Bridgend Scout Mountain Rescue team after its founder Mike Rudall completed a Rover Scout project in Bridgend. Western Beacons was one of the founding members of the South Wales Mountain Rescue Association.
In 1997 it changed its name to Western Beacons Mountain Search and Rescue Team to reflect the team’s main operational area within south Wales for both search and rescue operations.
The past 50 years has seen the organisation involved with major searches and rescues throughout Wales. The team attended several protracted searches over the years such as the search for Anna Humphries from Penley in 1988 and more recently the search for April Jones in 2012.
It had to cope with the loss of its team leader during a rescue in 1983.
On 1May 1983, Mike ‘Nog’ Rudall was training on the Brecon Beacons with a group of new members, when a call came over the radio that a group of Scouts hillwalking on Pen y Fan had got into some difficulty in atrocious weather.
Mr Rudall and the team immediately made their way to the area and discovered that the Scouts had fallen down the north face of Pen y Fan. He climbed down to one of the Scouts who had a lower leg injury. A spontaneous rockfall happened while he was treating the walker and the team leader shielded him with his own body. Mr Rudall was killed instantly by a large falling rock.
The team said its area is one of the largest covered by a single mountain rescue team in the UK. The team responds to callouts from two police forces, South Wales and Dyfed-Powys.
During a typical year the team responds to about 60 callouts in mountainous, rural, semi-urban, or urban areas.
The team hopes to raise £50,000 with its campaign
Team members are all volunteers and come from across south Wales. They all have day jobs and come from a variety of backgrounds including teachers, doctors, nurses, paramedics, electricians, mechanics, managers and company directors.
Nick Hardwidge of Western Beacons MSRT said: “It all begins this Saturday, 1 March when the team will be at GO Outdoors, Llansamlet, Swansea.
“We are there to offer advice to members of the public and to raise our profile with regards to what we do in and around south Wales.
“If we can raise funds towards our new control vehicle, so much the better. The public, particularly those with an interest in outdoor pursuits, have always been very generous when it comes to donating money to the team and we hope this Saturday will prove to be as successful as previous collections.
“If you wish to meet members of the team, but cannot make it to GO Outdoors this Saturday, we are supporting the Banff Mountain Film Festival at Porthcawl Grand Pavilion on 27 March and in Llanelli, at the Ffwrnes on 28 March.”
More details of the team, including how to donate, are on the team’s website.
