Julia Bradbury

She’s become the pin-up of walkers across the country yet she’s been blamed for increasing the workload of mountain rescue teams across the Lake District.

Julia Bradbury has brought the Lakeland fells to the attention of a wider public with her BBC series of walks based on Alfred Wainwright’s guides. She has also tackled a petrifying climb on a Scottish sea stack and pursued the more gentle tracks of disused railways from the south coast of England to the Scottish Highlands.

grough asked Ms Bradbury for an insight into what made her take to the fells. The Dublin-born television presenter undertook some serious mountain terrain during the filming of Wainwright’s Walks, including the infamous Sharp Edge on Blencathra, the difficult arête above Scales Tarn which was the scene of a family tragedy earlier this year when a fall killed 38-year-old Emma Anderson and left her husband and daughter hospitalised. Read the rest of this article »

Buachaille Etive Mòr: everyone's idea of a mountain

Hands up all those who knew there was an official definition of a mountain.

No? Neither did we, until we delved a little after hearing of the determined efforts of three hillwalking enthusiasts to elevate a Welsh hill to the pantheon of British mountains. It’s official! screamed the headlines of the mainstream press as they whooped over the fact there was a vague similarity between the walkers’ efforts and the plot of a 1995 film starring a foppish Englishman.

The three, Myrddyn Phillips, John Barnard and Graham Jackson had their eye on two potential candidates for the title of New Mountain: Craig Fach and Mynydd Graig Goch, both in north Wales and tantalisingly close to each other. Both were marked on Ordnance Survey maps as being 609m high, which converts in old money to 1,998 ft – 60cm short of the magic mark. Read the rest of this article »

Call Out Mountain Rescue is a little book packed with knowledge that could just save your life, and you can be one of the first to get your hands on a copy.

Published by Mountain Rescue (England and Wales), the handy pocket-sized guide to staying safe on the hills is an invaluable source of information when setting out for the fells and mountains and we have three copies to be won in this grough competition.

The book takes the reader through preparation and route planning, what to take and how to pack it, how best to stay safe in the mountains and what to do if you have an accident. If you do hit trouble, there’s a rundown of the mountain rescue call out procedure and how to relay the relevant information to the emergency services, plus a potted history of mountain rescue and some useful advice on publications, websites and organisations with which to hone your skills and research your trip before setting out.

Call Out Mountain Rescue is written and edited by Judy Whiteside, with a foreword from Mountain Rescue (England & Wales) patron, HRH Prince William of Wales. This sturdy little A6 guide, wirobound and with 150 full colour pages packed with information, is handy for the rucksack and a must for the outdoor enthusiast.

Mountaineer and author Andy Cave said: “This is essential reading for all British walkers and climbers. Packed with good advice and a great insight into the brilliant work performed by our rescue teams.”

David Allan, chairman of Mountain Rescue (England & Wales), said: “This new book is concise and easily portable yet contains a wealth of information covering hill safety, dealing with misfortune, engaging mountain rescue and also gives a useful account of the structure and background of mountain rescue itself. Easily readable and presented in an attractive format, one hopes it will play a part in reducing some of the ‘avoidable’ incidents of recent years. It certainly deserves to be read by a wide audience, particularly those with limited hill experience and the more casual hill goer.'

Three lucky winners can win their own copy of the book, worth £9.99. Simply answer the question below for a chance to win your copy of Call Out Mountain Rescue. If you’re stumped for the answer, try keying ‘anniversary’ into the site search box at the top of this page, and you should get a few hints.

Call Out Mountain Rescue is available by mail order at £9.99 plus postage and packing. Email Judy Whiteside at editor@mountain.rescue.org.uk

For more information on mountain rescue, visit www.mountain.rescue.org.uk.

Click here to enter

The competition will close at midnight on Saturday, 26 July 2008. Winners will be chosen at random from correct entries.

The editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

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A former Prime Minister once put at the top of his priorities: education, education, education. It’s not a bad idea, especially if your priorities are the tops of Britain’s mountains and fells.

I count myself as reasonably knowledgeable about walking on high ground, but this little book taught me enough to make it a worthwhile addition to my rucksack.

Call Out Mountain Rescue runs through most of the things you need to know to make your trips on to the tops safer. It’s in an easily digestible form, with lots of hints on how to prepare for a trip, what to take, basic navigation and things to avoid when tackling Britain’s mountains.

The aim is to stop the walker becoming a mountain-rescue statistic. Calls to our volunteer rescue teams have risen by 40 per cent in the last five years and Mountain Rescue (England and Wales) decided it was time to try to educate fellwalkers.

However, accidents do happen, and the book has information on how to get help when you need it; what will happen when you call mountain rescue, and a potted history of the mountain rescue movement. Incredibly, there was a time when Government authorities persecuted and indeed prosecuted mountain-rescue pioneer Wilson Hey of the Alpine Club for his insistence on providing pain relief for casualties on the mountains.

The book chronicles the development of the teams from the ramshackle, ad-hoc early helpers who ripped five-bar gates off their hinges to carry stricken climbers from the fells, to the professional, highly trained, yet unpaid volunteers who are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to answer the call to those who find themselves in trouble on the high ground of the British Isles.

For the mountain know-it-all, there are intriguing little hints scattered throughout the book. For instance, would you know what use toothpaste has when planning routes? Or how about the one example of a mountain incident when you definitely should not go for help straight away?

When would an iPod be useful in a rescue situation? And why might you need to provide a chalet when you dialled 999?

Do you know which colours midges prefer? When might spitting help save your life? The answers are all packed into the book.

Author Judy Whiteside’s writing style is light and easy to read. The format is simple and the book is small enough, at A6 size, to slip into the rucksack as a reference. My advice would be to read and digest its information first, then carry it to refer to should you need it.

If I have one criticism, it’s the title: Call Out Mountain Rescue could just encourage those thoughtless hillwalkers to whip out their mobiles before trying to extricate themselves from their predicament first. It’s a bit misleading, because the aim is to help you avoid calling out mountain rescue.

Previous publications from mountain rescue councils have been more technical manuals aimed at rescuers rather than the public at large. This little book is firmly aimed at the recreational walker who ventures on to the fells and needs to know how to make his or her journey a little safer. Having said that, there are enough insights to benefit even trained fellwalkers such as those holding Mountain Leader or Walking Group Leader awards.

The book represents a good use of a tenner. Recommended.

Bob Smith

Call Out Mountain Rescue. A Pocket Guide to Safety on the Hill edited by Judy Whiteside. Published by Mountain Rescue (England & Wales). Price £9.99 plus post and packing from editor@mountain.rescue.org.uk.

ISBN 978 0 9501765 8 1. Wirobound paperback. 150 pages.

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It is doubtful the quiet Yorkshire Dales village of Horton in Ribblesdale had ever seen anything like it.

Andy Peace and Mitja Kosovelj race down Pen-y-ghent

Accustomed though it is to a regular weekend influx of visitors heading for the shapely fells surrounding it, the 498 inhabitants of the community found their home took on a distinctly more cosmopolitan feel as some of the globe’s top long-distance athletes – and their supporters, descended on Horton.

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Every journey should have a goal; so said that lukewarm aficionado of the Pennines Alfred Wainwright.

Andrew Bibby’s is to follow the Pennine watershed, a journey only made possible since the Countryside and Rights of Way Act. Journalist Bibby’s other major project is the Freedom to Roam guide books which celebrate the open access areas available since the legislation allowed us (legally) on to hidden uplands

Andrew Bibby: The Backbone of England 

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You’re on a remote Munro. The wind whips up and before you know it, you’re swept off your feet and find yourself tumbling down a steep drop and land in a heap at the bottom of it.

Searing pain envelops your leg and you can’t even stand up. There is no mobile phone reception; you haven’t seen another soul all day, so the whistle is useless. What can you do?

Equine Ramblers want the Government to allow personal locator beacons 

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Britain has a proud tradition of mountain and fell rescue, free of charge and professionally delivered – yet provided by unpaid volunteers.

A mountain rescue team at work in the Lake District

That could change. The unthinkable is being thought: that mountain rescue teams (MRTs) might have to charge for their services. The reason: the charities that operate rescue in this country are being stretched to their limit by an unprecedented increase in calls for help.

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How do you get your fun? Does the prospect of spending a couple of hours crawling on hands and knees through freezing cold water sound enticing?

Or squeezing into a gap so tight you have to turn your head sideways? How about battling against a torrent of water in the dark, soaked to the skin? Sounds awful? Well, you’d be wrong. It is fun, fun, fun!

A caver enters Upper Long Churn Cave 

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The walker setting forth on the West Highland Way is embarking on a trip through history. Not only will his or her route pass through scenes of bloody massacre, betrayal, lawlessness and military campaigns, but the way itself is the result of the historic movement towards forging routes to enable the masses to enjoy the open countryside and escape the dark urban confines of Britain’s towns and cities.

The West Highland Way approaches Buachaille Etive Mòr in Glencoe

From the skirmishes between northern English ramblers and gamekeepers on the moors and fells of the Peak District came the notion of a long-distance path running from Derbyshire to the Scottish Borders. Tom Stephenson’s Pennine Way would be a long time coming, being opened finally in 1965, 30 years after the journalist first mooted the concept.

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