That's why we Train!

Having only just rigged an 'after-dark' a cliff top set-up, we were faced with the real thing last night (Sunday).

The pagers went off just after 8.00pm and we were tasked to a climber, stuck on the cliff somewhere near the Anvil Point Lighthouse.

We quickly grabbed the night lighting and trailer and met the first informant at Durlston who took us to the climb area.  The incident turned out to be along the coast path, several hundred yards west of the lighthouse and inaccessible by vehicle, so we lugged the lighting, generator, stakes, 250m rope bags, sledgehammers and other assorted equipment to the site by hand.

On site, the lights were soon up and running and a double-stake holdfast installed to give a cliff technician access to the cliff edge where he was able to spot, and make contact with, the casualty.

It soon became apparent that the climber was in no immediate danger and was in fact tired and unharmed on the rocks at the bottom rather than stuck or injured half way up.  Bearing this in mind and noting the calm sea conditions it was considered easier and safer to request Swanage RNLI's inshore lifeboat to recover the climber, rather than deploy a technician over the cliff in the dark.

We continued to prepare for a cliff rescue, setting up further holdfasts etc, just in case the lifeboat was unable to recover, but it was very soon spotted rounding Anvil Point and quickly on scene.  A quick call on the radio confirmed that the casualty was on board and the boat was reversing out and it was time to pack the kit up, carry it all back to the truck and return to the station.

A Job well done, and thanks to the RNLI crew for their quick response.

There's a decision making process to go through when carrying out operations such as last night's, including whether to recover by ropes, by lifeboat or even by helicopter.   This is normally a job for the Officer In Charge -OIC- in conjunction with the Portland operations centre and other team members and we'll take a look at that process and the various factors to consider another time.