Call Out Mountain Rescue?

Two years ago, when the first edition of this pocket-sized book appeared, we said Call Out Mountain Rescue represented a good use of a tenner, for an informative and lightly written tome packed with good advice and lots of information.

So what’s changed since then and the publishing of this second edition? Well, its title has gained a question mark, perhaps in recognition that best practice is not to immediately reach for the mobile phone when you get lost on the hill.

It has also gained more than 20 extra pages, with an extended section on what to do if you have a mountain incident; how to administer the first aid that could save your walking companions’ lives; and how to get yourself out of trouble, without recourse to the rescue services.

There is additional information on where you can legally go and what you can do in the English and Welsh countryside. For instance, would you know the difference between red arrows and dark red arrows on waymarking posts? How long can landowners legally close open access land?

If there’s a criticism, it’s that the situation in Scotland is not explained adequately. While the book is published by Mountain Rescue England & Wales, there’s a fair chance that hillwalkers using it are likely to venture north of the border for their mountain thrills too, and Scotland has a completely different access ethos and legislation, with much wider rights and responsibilities.

However, the book’s strengths remain: it’s written in a very easily read way by Judy Whiteside, herself a member of mountain rescue; it has tons of useful facts and advice on hillwalking, and it’s very matter-of-fact in its approach.

Who better to advise the hillwalker on keeping safe than the people who, day-in-day-out, take to the mountains to help those in trouble? The knowledge gained in countless callouts to walkers, climbers, mountain bikers and other outdoors enthusiasts in distress is put to good use in the practical advice in Call Out Mountain Rescue?’s 165 pages.

There is advice that might come as a shock to some: cutting up your beloved Ordnance Survey maps; the danger of your walking poles becoming lightning conductors; walking uphill rather than down to call for help.

Much of the advice is commonsense, and is of use both to those setting out on their first hillwalking adventure and to seasoned mountaineers. I doubt there will be many readers who will not learn something from reading this book.

Subjects include mountain weather; ticks; route planning; crossing streams; protecting the countryside; mountain rescue procedures, and a brief history of the rescue service. There’s even advice on what to do when the welcome rescue helicopter arrives.

With a foreword by Prince William, left, Mountain Rescue England & Wales’s patron and himself a pilot of an RAF search and rescue Sea King, and with quotes from no lesser writers than Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, Call Out Mountain Rescue? remains good value at £9.99.

Call Out Mountain Rescue? second edition, written by Judy Whiteside and published by Mountain Rescue England & Wales, in association with the British Cave Rescue Council. Available via the MRE&W website and in outdoors retailers.

grough has five copies of the book to give away to winners of its online competition. See our competition page.