About Holme Valley Mountain Rescue Team
The Holme Valley Mountain Rescue Team is a voluntary organisation based in Marsden, near Huddersfield in West Yorkshire. The Team functions as a search and rescue service covering the southern half of West Yorkshire.
Holme Valley Mountain Rescue Team Description
The Holme Valley Mountain Rescue Team (HVMRT) is a volunteer-based search and rescue organisation based in Marsden, near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.
The team has over 40 members who are on call to assist those in difficulty, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, whatever the weather - plus a similar number who are non-qualified trainees, helpers and support members.
The team covers an area of over 1, 000 square kilometres of diverse terrain, ranging from rugged open moorland and crags to rural and semi-urban areas, and varying in altitude between 7m and nearly 600m above sea level. This area of operations roughly comprises the southern half of West Yorkshire, and the team operates under the auspices of West Yorkshire Police.
Mountain Rescue in the UK is an entirely volunteer-based organisation that operates at no cost to the individuals or organisations who are assisted. Holme Valley MRT is one of 58 teams that belong to Mountain Rescue England and Wales - who estimate the annual cost of running this service to be around £2. 5 million. Throughout the organisation’s history, it has received no regular funding from government or any other official sources - individual teams operate independently and meet their own running costs on a charitable basis by donations from the public.
Although the team‚Äôs primary role is search and rescue from the Pennine moors and crags, the specialist equipment and skill-set necessary for Mountain Rescue is frequently deployed elsewhere on incidents ‚Äúcloser to home‚ÄĚ. The team is routinely called in by West Yorkshire Police to assist with missing pension searches - particularly in cases involving the elderly or vulnerable, or children.
The team is also regularly called in by Yorkshire Ambulance Service to assist with casualties in remote or difficult to access areas - such incidents may be less than 100m from a paved road, but terrain or conditions require specialist equipment and techniques - or just strength of numbers - to extricate a casualty.
Similarly, when severe weather conditions impede the progress of the regular emergency services, Mountain Rescue teams make up a valuable part of the contingency planning. Snow, heavy rain, exceptionally poor visibility and severe flooding are all scenarios where the specific skills and equipment of Mountain Rescue teams can be brought to bear.
Throughout the UK, Mountain Rescue teams are included as a valuable part of civil contingency planning, on call in the case of a major incident. Holme Valley MRT regularly trains with West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service as a part of emergency planning for a possible rail or canal incident in Standege Tunnel, the longest, highest and deepest canal tunnel in the UK - which terminates a few hundred metres from the team’s base in the Pennine village of Marsden.
The team’s base, Emergency House, is a former fire station building, purchased in 2015, which provides garaging for two emergency vehicles, as well as a control room, training facilities, a small kitchen and storage and drying facilities for specialist rescue equipment.
Reviews
ūüėéA fantastic write up of a recent exercise from our friends at Ride Kirklees who were our victims for the day.....I mean casualties! ‚ėļÔłŹ https://ridekirklees.wordpress.com/‚Ķ/a- training-exercise-w‚Ķ/
ūüö®ūüö≤ The BBC 14 day weather forecast for Sunday 14th - RESCUE RIDE DAY - is 20C Sunny Intervals with Gentle Breeze - Perfect Cycling Weather !!! If you haven‚Äôt already get yourself booked ūüéę on for a great day! ūüėÉ
‚õĎ We have some great events happening this weekend, come along and meet team members & much more! Saturday 29th - Lee Tedder David Malpass & Kayleigh Jayne will be at The Rugby ūüŹČ match & family fun day at Huddersfield YMCA RUFC it will be Yorkshire Ambulance Service v West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service! Sunday 30th - Matthew Parry & Seamus Quinn will be at the grand opening of Oakwell Hall MTB Trail! ūüöĶūüŹĽ‚Äć‚ôāÔłŹ. We would love to see you!
‚õĎMeet the team - Meet Jonathan Ison. Jon is one of our assistant leaders. He has been in the team for 10 years and has been an Assistant Leader for the last few. He trains the Technical Rescue team ūüßóūüŹĹ‚Äć‚ôāÔłŹ, who are there to retrieve people trapped on cliffs, or structures, and protect stretcher teams on the steep sided moors and woods of Kirklees. He often seems far too happy to dangle from ropes over cliffs and can often be seen by hanging from ropes on cliffs and ice climbs... in the mountains around the UK and Europe. Jon is also one of our Council members. The Council meets each month to make decisions about the running of the Charity, and balancing the funds that we donated ūüėä During the day, Jon is a physics teacher ūüĎ®ūüŹĽ‚ÄćūüŹę at Barnsley College, where his A-level students learn to think laterally (and vertically) in breaking down problems. His students are now used to his call-out alarm going off in lessons, especially in observed lessons, yet knowing that he will still being in work earlier than them the following day, to stretch their minds some more.
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‚õĎTraining update - The aim of todays exercise was to practice a common type of call out we have, a mountain biker crash. This was enhanced by having 3 mountain bikers ūüöĶ‚Äć‚ôÄÔłŹ with ranging injuries and different locations within the area. Whilst it would be unlikely for us to encounter 3 casualties of this nature in the same party it allows more team members to get hands on with casualty care and gives us the opportunity to expose our trainees to different roles. ūüėä A big thank you to Ride Kirklees for being our casualties today. The team celebrated an early finish with smiles and piesūü•ß. Closing off our peer review weekend & inviting our probationers to be a full company team member. Congratulations guys!
ūüĎ®ūüŹĽ‚ÄćūüŹę Training update- this weekend we have had the pleasure of hosting Tim, Huw, John & Jenny to conduct a peer review on the team. The guys are from different teams across the UK ūüá¨ūüáß ūüŹīů†Āßů†ĀĘů†Ā≥ů†Ā£ů†Āīů†ĀŅ ūüŹīů†Āßů†ĀĘů†Ā∑ů†Ā¨ů†Ā≥ů†ĀŅ and the purpose is to steal all the great things we do and share them across Mountain Rescue. Also to provoke and challenge us to further develop and grow as a team! A huge thank you from us for giving up your weekend to support us! ūü§ó
ūüöĎ Friday the team Land Rover, mobile 1 went to the Land Rover Centre Huddersfield for its MOT, unfortunately, a slight fail on the fuel system. However, the team at LRC fitted new parts today, and have given it a clean bill of health.. ūüĒß Other than the cost of the parts, they only charged a nominal rate for the labour and provided the MOT free of charge. A huge thank you once again from the team ‚õĎ for keeping mobile 1 on the road and helping people! ūü§ó
We were going to share some photos from last nights training however Marsden Racers beat us! Thank you for coming along and being our exercise casualties ūüėä.
ūüö®Call Out Update- This weekend the team have had a busy one. Saturday we provided first aid ‚õĎ cover to the Forget Me Not Colour Run & had a stall at Slaithwaite Fire Station ūüöí open day. Today we covered the Marsden 10 miler and attended to a call out on this event to support Yorkshire Ambulance Service. Our casualty suffered a fracture to her head of humerus and was unable to walk off the hill. Therefore we stretchered our casualty to the awaiting ambulance ūüöĎ.
ūüėä A great way to not only raise funds and support the team but to get the kids out into the woods and learn some valuable skills! Sign up on the link within the original post ‚õĎ
ūü§óCommunity update - This team members Lee Tedder & Nicola Ingle visited Clayton West Beavers. They learnt what it takes to be a MR team member ‚õĎ and had fun with a bell stretcher and looking at Mob 3ūüöĎūüö®
ūüö®This week is National Volunteers week! Did you know we have 50 unpaid call out members? Of which each volunteer on average ‚õĎ will contribute 220hours per year! That‚Äôs more than most people‚Äôs holiday ūüŹĚ allowance. Never mind the Call outs at very unsociable hours. Between our team members, their families and your kind generosity we wouldn‚Äôt be able to deliver our community the service we do! A huge thank you to all 50 and everyone that supports us! ‚̧ԳŹ
ūüö®ūüö®ūüö®ūüö®ūüéę Tickets now available for Escape from Marsden Stocks! How far can you get in either 6/12 or 24 hours? I‚Äôm aiming for Liverpool how about you?ūüö®ūüö®ūüö®ūüö®
ūüö®Call out update - today so far the team have been called out to assist Yorkshire Ambulance Service ūüöĎ with two casualties. Our first this afternoon was however very brief, we are very grateful as a local resident was able to get his landrover down a track to reach the casualty who was having breathing difficulties in the Upperthong area. The second was to help a very lovely lady after she had fallen over her dog ūüź∂ and injured her lower leg. Whilst she was mortified to be carried out of her local woods, she was very happy with the Entonox. In addition left us a trip advisor review ‚Äėthe best mountain rescue team ever‚Äô albeit luckily the only she has had dealings with. ūüėä It would be remiss of us not mentioning the perks of mummy, daddy and grandad being in the team is baby Huw got to spend his evening drawing ‚úćÔłŹ everyone‚Äôs routes in! ūüėć
ūü§ó A huge thank you to Inspector Brown and Sargent Hannah from West Yorkshire Police ūüĎģ‚Äć‚ôÄÔłŹ for dropping us in a package of goodies! The way to a volunteers heart! A cuppa ‚ėēÔłŹ and sweets ūüć¨.
Are the bank holiday blues starting to kick inūüėĘ? Need something exciting ūü§ó to look forward to to get you through the week?....well have no fear Holme Valley are here to help! ‚õĎ Over the next few months we have an event on that will cover all your outdoor interests! In fact two amazing things are happening on the 31st May! 1: ūüé• Showing of free solo at Marsden Mechanics. 2: ūüéę Ticket entry opens at 8am for Our Escape from Marsden Stocks event 30th Aug... And if that hasn‚Äôt sparked your interest yet Rescue Rides return again this year 14th July ūüö≤. Get more information on any of our events by visiting our events section on the page! We can wait to see you all! ūü§ó
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ūüö®Call out update - this evening the team were called to support Yorkshire Ambulance Service with a casualty with a broken legūü¶Ķ in the Halifax area. This would normally be a job for Calder Valley Search & Rescue Team but they were also already dealing with another call out so we were happy to support. ūüėä