Training

Always prepared

We cover an area of around 350 square miles, from the River Ribble and Pendle Hill to The West Pennine Moors and as far south as the M62, as well as everything in between. The area we work in offers a varied range of challenges for us as a search and rescue team, including large hills with steep and craggy ground, open moorland, disused quarries and mines. The beauty of our rugged local landscape makes it attractive to outdoor enthusiasts including hikers, mountain bikers, fell runners, equestrians, climbers and even the odd paraglider.

These challenges are what a mountain rescue team is known for. However, our area is also home to a large urban population so many of our call outs are to assist our statutory emergency services. We're often called upon by the North West Ambulance Service and Lancashire Fire and Rescue to assist with difficult casualty extractions, such as elderly residents who have fallen in the home and the paramedics require our assistance and specialist stretchers. We're also called to road traffic incidents where a vehicle has left the road and our technical rope skills are needed.

Our team are also experts in search management and execution so we're often called upon by Lancashire and Greater Manchester Police Services to assist with missing person searches, when the search team will employ our specialist skills in search management and equipment to ensure that the missing person is found and given the appropriate care.

In recent times the changing climate has presented new challenges in the way of flooding. Occasional flooding has been an issue for a very long time but climate change means that we're unfortunately seeing flooding incidents happen more frequently. Our team is trained and ready to help our community. We regularly carry out swift water and flood response training, ensuring that when we're needed, we're ready to help.