“My interest in mountain rescue all started with an article I noticed while browsing Outsider magazine back in January. There was a shout-out for new applicants for the 2011 DWMRT training program. I was hugely interested in volunteering so I headed along to their open evening down in Wicklow. I highly recommend for anyone who is considering joining up as it covered a quick intro into all operational aspects of mountain rescue as well as being a super chance to have a chat to all the folks involved in the team.

Coincidentally a short while after attending the open evening, I spotted the team’s short film entry to the 2011 Wee Adventure Film festival. After seeing the level of skill in the film clip I wasn’t sure if I would make the cut, but I was more than convinced that I had to at least try out for a place on the team! 

 A few days later, I submitted  a carefully completed application which included an assessment on navigation and mountain identification. Soon after I was delighted to find out I had been selected to participate in a full day of fitness and skills assessment on Lugnaquilla.

 In the 3 weeks running up to the skills assessment day myself & 2 friends regularly practiced map reading, compass navigation and did lots of hikes to build up both our fitness and reinforce our local hill knowledge. 

 Finally the day of reckoning arrived. As luck would have it the conditions on the assessment day on Lug turned out to be downright abysmal. Visibility was minimal as a dense fog enveloped the national park. Based on a useful tip from one for the girls, I had laminated my maps back and front with simple schoolbook contact paper to water-proof them. This came in very useful to save my map from getting damaged on that wet damp day in February. My heart sank though as I realised the regular map features would not be visible to help form triangulations of our location out on Leinster’s highest peak. Given that I could see less than a few meters ahead I found I had to rely on pacing combined with time estimations calculated on Naismith’s rule to ensure I was successfully getting to the various spot heights and features throughout the day. 

 The reality of the challenges involved in a rescue struck home after we had been hiking over steep terrain for many hours. I was getting tired and weary from ensuring we precisely knew our location at all times on the misty mountainside. Just as we tried to nimbly negotiate our way down a particularly steep valley-side, the assessor brutally took that opportunity to remind me that in a real rescue operations we would also be carrying rescue kit, ropes and a casualty on a stretcher as well.

 It was at that moment that I really started to reconsider whether I was cut out for the team. I thought long and hard about it for the rest of the journey back. Remembering the stories of the sense of achievement experienced when you get to help a casualty out, I quickly convinced myself that all the challenges involved would simply make the experience all the more rewarding in the end. 

 Needless to say I was almost as excited as a lottery winner when I finally found out that I’d made the final crew! I’ve been out on regular training with the team and it is already proving to be a life changing experience. I’ve been surprised to learn how 3 simple loops on a prosik rope can literally save your life while you dangle on a cliff-face. I’ve got to experience the intensity of coordinating a simulated rescue on a quarryside, where a wrong decision can result in a casualty and stretcher descending down a rock-face.

 Most of all I’ve got to know a friendly and relaxed team of extraordinary professionals. Along with their rescue day-job, these folks are dedicating a stunning amount of time and energy to helping new recruits learn the skills necessary to find, protect & rescue casualties on the hills of Wicklow. I am hugely excited about all the training and challenges that lie in the year ahead!

 Michelle